HISTORY 



jiALF pENTURY £ 



ENTURY LELEBRATION 



OP THE ORGANIZATION OF THE 



fmi Presbyterian Church 



FRANKLIN, INDIANA. 




S.' E. WISIIARD, Pastor. 



CINCINNATI : 
Elm Street Printing Company, 176 and 178 Elm St. 
1874. 



BY TRAJsibir^K 



pREfATOFiY. 



At a meeting of the Board of Elders and Deacons of the First 
Presbyterian Church of Franklin, Indiana, held immediately after 
public worship, on Sabbath morning, December 13, 1874, it was 

"Resolved, First, That the entire proceedings of the Semi-centen- 
nial meeting be prepared for publication. 

" Second, That the pastor of the church be requested to gather 
and arrange the material, and prepare it for the press." 

In accordance with the above resolutions, the work has been 
carried forward. The design has been to give a complete history of 
all the proceedings connected with the half-century meeting; there- 
fore the steps which led to the meeting, the committees arranging 
for the same, the hymns, and substantially all that was said or done, 
find an appropriate place in the volume. "Without these matters of 
less seeming importance, the history would not be complete ; hence 
their appearance in the volume. 

S. E. WISHARD, Pastor. 

Fkanklin, Indiana. 



(3) 



Contents. 



PAGE. 

I. History of the Preparation for the Observance of the 
Fiftieth Anniversary of the Organization of the 
First Presbyterian Church of Franklin, Indiana. 5 



II. Committees, etc 7 

III. Sermon by Kev. J. G. Monfort, D. D., Saturday Morn- 

ing, 10J A. M. ...... 15 

IV. Sermon in the Evening by Kev. A. B. Morey . 33 
V. Sermon Sabbath Morning by Kev. Joseph F. Tuttle, 

D. D., President of Wabash College . . 57 

VI. Sabbath-school Meeting in the Afternoon . . 87 

VII. Communion Service Sabbath Evening . . 100 
VIII. Memorial Day, November 30, viz : 



1. A. M. History of the Presbyterian Church 

of Franklin, Indiana, by Judge D. D. Banta. 

2. Statement Concerning Kev. David Monfort, 

D. D., First Pastor of the Church, by Kev. 
Joseph G. Monfort, D. D. 

3. History of the Sabbath-school by the Pastor, 

Kev. S. E. Wishard. 
P. M. Devotional Meeting. Keminiscence Meet- 
ing. Short Addresses by I. P. Monfort, Mrs. 
Lydia Herriott, Mrs. Nancy E. Kutherford, 
Col. Covert, John Herriott, Judge Finch, and 
Dr. Kitchey. Letters from Kev. J as. McKee 

and Kev. P. S. Cleland 115 

IX. Evening Entertainment : Collation given by the Ladies 

of the Church. Hymn. Prayer. Benediction. 210 
X. Presbyterian Doctrine and Life. Sermon, Preached the 

Following Sabbath by S. E. Wishard, Pastor. 213 
XI. Appendix. Containing a List of the Names of all 
Persons Received to the Church Since it was Or- 
ganized, with Tabulated Statistics. . . 231 

(4) 



^ Jubilee {Shall 7 hat Fiftieth 
Year be ^nto you. 



Lev. xxv. 11. 



The First Presbyterian Church of Franklin, 
Indiana, was organized on the 30th day of Novem- 
ber, 1824. As the fiftieth anniversary of the organi- 
zation approached, it was deemed suitable that some 
special commemoration of the event should be had. 
After a history of fifty years of toil, passing through 
the experiences incident to the beginning of pioneer 
church work, and reaching up to matured strength, 
we were impelled to the delightful work of reviewing 
the past. The faith and deeds of our fathers were- 
deserving of honorable recognition and permanent 
preservation. 

Hence, at a regular monthly meeting of the Ses- 
sion held at the residence of Elder Allen McCaslin, 
a mile and a half south and west of the city, on the 
31st of July, 1874, the Session resolved to celebrate 
the fiftieth anniversary of the organization *of the 

2 (5) 



6 



FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH 



church. It was also resolved that the anniversary 
services, which would occur on Monday, November 
30th, be preceded by religious services on Saturday 
and Sabbath, immediately preceding the anniversary. 

The Moderator, and Clerk of Session (Dr. J. O. 
Martin) were requested to prepare a programme for 
the occasion. At a subsequent meeting the Commit- 
tee presented a programme which was adopted. The 
pastor was requested to bring the subject before the 
congregation. He did so by reading the following 
statement, which was also published in the city pa- 
pers, viz : 

"Half Century Celebration of the Organization of the 
First Presbyterian Church of this City. 

" The members of the Presbyterian Church of this 
city are preparing to celebrate, on the 30th day of 
November next, the fiftieth anniversary of the or- 
ganization of the church. The arrangements which 
are being made indicate that the commemoration of 
the event will be in every way worthy of the occasion. 

" It is proposed to invite all the living pastors and 
members of the church, who have removed from our 
city, to return and enjoy the hospitalities of the peo- 
ple, and the services of the occasion. 

" As the 30th of November comes on Monday, it 
has been determined to occupy the preceding Satur- 
day and Sunday with religious services, and devote 
Monday to the commemoration services proper. 

"The following Committees and Programme of Ex- 
ercises have been appointed by the Session, and ar- 
ranged for : 



OF FRANKLIN, INDIANA. 



7 



COMMITTEES I 

1. On Correspondence — 

Wm. McCaslin, 
Dr. J. 0. Martin, 
John Clarke. 

2. On Entertainment— 

A. Bergen, 
George Herriott, 
Junius Bice, 
Geo. W. Voris. 

3. On Decoration — 

Baxter McCollough, 
Harvey Voris, 
Elmer Taylor, 
Miss Nannie Herriott, 
Mrs. Dr. Vannuys, J 
Miss Ella Clarke, 
Mrs. Maggie McCaslin. 

4. On Refreshments (for evening of 30th Nov.) — 

Mr. and Mrs. R. V. Ditmars, 
Mr. and Mrs. Wm. Voris, 
Mr. and Mrs. Richard Taylor. 
Mr. and Mrs. Perry Smiley. 

PROGRAMME OF EXERCISES : 

1. Saturday Morning, ioi A. M., November 28th, 

Sermon by Rev. Jas. A. McKee ; or, Rev. J. 
G. Monfort, D. D. 

2. Saturday Evening, 7 P. M., Sermon by Rev. A. 

B. Morey. 

3. Sabbath Morning, ioi A. M., Sermon by Rev. 

J. F. Tuttle, D. D., President Wabash College. 



FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH 



4. Sabbath Evening, Communion Services, with 

short addresses by clergymen present. 

5. Commemoration Day, Monday, November 30th. 

0/2- A. M., Historical Paper, by Judge Banta. 
1 li, History of the Sabbath School, by S. E. 
Wishard. 

2i to 4i P. M., Reminiscence Meeting. 
7 P. M., Social and Collation. 

S. E. Wishard." 
The immediate work of the Committee was com- 
menced in October. The Committee on Correspond- 
ence issued the following circular, to be sent to all 
persons at a distance who had at any time been con- 
nected with the church : 

" Franklin, Indiana, Oct. 26, 1874. 



Dear Sir: — Inclosed you will find programme of 
the Half Century Celebration of the Organization of 
the Presbyterian Church of Franklin, Indiana. 

The indications are that this occasion will be one 
of much interest, and you are respectfully solicited to 
be in attendance. 

Very truly yours, 

Wm. McCaslin. 
J. O. Martin. 
John Clarke." 

The Committee on Entertainment secured ample 
accommodations for those who might be in attend- 
ance. The neighboring pastors from Columbus, 
Edinburg (Hopewell was without a pastor at the 
time), Whiteland, Greenwood, Southport and Indian- 



OF FRANKLIN, INDIANA. 



9 



apolis were invited to be present. A few gentlemen 
from other parts of the State and from Michigan were 
included among the invited guests. 

The Committee on Decoration, from the nature of 
their work, could not undertake much of their labor 
until the Monday preceding the services. But the 
interest in the occasion had grown to such propor- 
tions that almost the entire congregation of young 
people contributed their skill and helpfulness to this 
work. 

It would be interesting to those who shall celebrate 
the next half century of the life of this church, to 
put on record all the names of the young gentlemen 
and ladies who took part in the work of decoration. 
To do so, however, would be only to insert at this 
point a roll of the young people of the congregation. 
In addition, however, to the Committee whose names 
have already appeared in these pages, special mention 
should be made of the valuable assistance rendered 
by Oren C. Dunn, whose skill gave us the ornamental 
letters for decoration ; also of the important services 
of the artist, Mr. Samuel Richards, who reproduced, 
in pencil, accurate sketches of the old log court- 
house in which the church was organized, the first 
house of worship the church ever built, and the house 
occupied at the Memorial Meeting. 

With such valuable assistance the work of decora- 
tion occupied the time from Monday morning until 
the ringing of the bell on Saturday morning, for the 
first service of the occasion. 

As no photograph of the internal decorations has 



10 



FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH 



been preserved, a brief pen sketch of the same will be 
in place here. 

On entering the room in the vestibule below, the 
word 

GREETING, 
beautifully wrought in evergreen, lay upon the wall. 
Passing up the stairway to the upper vestibule, and 
entering the audience room above, your eye rested 
first upon the motto : " A jubilee shall that fif- 
tieth year be unto you" — a motto that gave signifi- 
cance to the occasion. This motto was in very large 
letters, occupying a considerable portion of the space 
on the north wall over the pulpit. The letters were 
beautifully cut from card-board, handsomely covered 
with evergreen, so as to present definitely marked 
proportions, and the richest ornamentation. 

Immediately under the center of this motto, and 
lying on an arch which had been thrown over the 
pulpit, were the words in smaller characters : " Great 
is our Lord." At the left side of the pulpit, and in 
position as if supporting the arch, was the date 1824, 
and in the same position at the right of the pulpit 
was the date 1874. Also on the right side of the 
pulpit, as you enter the room, was erected a beautiful 
monument in imitation of marble. The monument 
was crowned with an evergreen crown, and upon the 
south face of the monument, ? in full view of the con- 
gregation, were inscribed the names* of Monfort, de- 

*As the work of inscribing these names on the monument was not 
completed until the ringing of the bell for Saturday morning service, and 
as the list had been made from memory, and not from accurate examin- 
ation of the records, five of the above names were, by mistake, omitted 
at the time. But the complete list of deceased elders is here inserted as 
it should have been placed on the monument. 



OF FRANKLIN, INDIANA. 



11 



ceased pastor, and deceased Elders McCaslin, Graham, 
Demaree, McCaslin, Shellady, Covert, McKinney, 
Vannuys, Terrell, King, Banta, and Sloan. 

Immediately back of the pulpit, and under the cen- 
ter of the arch, the cross and anchor, beautifully or- 
namented, rested upon the wall. Pictures of the de- 
ceased Pastor Monfort, and Elders King, Terrell, and 
Sloan, also of Rev. Jas. A. McKee, now residing 
at Thomasville, Georgia, were assigned appropriate 
places on either side of the pulpit. On the west wall 
were the pencil sketches of the old log court-house 
and the old frame church, by Samuel Richards, or- 
namented with evergreen borders and appropriate 
Scripture mottoes. On the east wall was a pencil 
sketch, by the same gentleman, of the house in which 
the services of the half-century meeting were to be 
held. The windows, chandelier and gallery were hung 
with festoons. Encircling the clock on the east wall 
were the words : " The time is short." On the op- 
posite wall, corresponding in ornamentation, were the 
words : " The lord give thee peace." Beneath the 
festooning of the gallery were the words : "The Lord 

BLESS THEE AND KEEP THEE." 

The effect of these decorations upon the audience 
room was exceedingly happy. The last touches were 
given to the room as the audience began to assemble. 
On the preceding day and night had fallen the first 
and severest snow-storm of the season. But on Sat- 
urday morning the clouds were lifted, and the earth, 
mantled with snow, was flooded with sunlight, and 
swept by the crisp winds of the last days of Novem- 
ber. As the audience quietly assembled many were 



12 



FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH 



melted to tears by the recall of other days and other 
scenes. The beautiful Scripture mottoes, the inscribed 
names of a departed pastor and elders, the almost 
speaking faces of some who had more recently gone 
to their reward, with the living presence of others who 
had come from abroad to renew old memories and 
enkindle old loves, conspired to make the scene 
touching and impressive. 

At half past ten o'clock the services were intro- 
duced by the choir singing the anthem, " 0, sing 
unto the Lord T 

The Scriptures were read by Rev. A. B. Morey, 
when the pastor read the following hymn, which was 
sung : 

How pleased and blessed was I, 
To hear the people cry ; 
" Come, let us seek our God to-day !" 
Yes, with a cheerful zeal, 
We haste to Zion's hill, 
And there our vows and honors pay. 

Zion — thrice happy place — 

Adorned with wondrous grace; 
While walls of strength embrace thee round, 

In thee our tribes appear 

To pray, and praise, and hear 
The sacred gospel's joyful sound. 

May peace attend thy gate, 

And joy within thee wait, 
To bless the soul of every guest. 

The man who seeks thy peace, 

And wishes thine increase, 
A thousand blessings on him rest. 

My tongue repeats her vows, 
" Peace to this sacred house !" 



OF FRANKLIN, INDIANA. 



13 



For here my friends and kindred dwell. 

And since my glorious God 

Makes thee his blest abode, 
My soul shall ever love thee well. 

Rev. J. G. Monfort, D. D., led the congregation in 
prayer, after which the pastor announced, and the en- 
tire congregation sang the following hymn : 

Joyful be the hours to-day; 

Joyful let the seasons bej 
Let us sing, for well we may, 

Jesus ! we will sing of thee. 

Should thy people silent be, 

Then the very stones would sing; 

What a debt we owe to thee, 
Thee our Savior, thee our King. 

Joyful are we now to own, 

Rapture thrills us as we trace j 
All the deeds thy love hath done, 

All the riches of thy grace. 

'Tis thy grace alone can save, 

Every blessing comes from thee — 
All we have, and hope to have, 
All we are, and hope to be. 

Thine the Name to sinners dear, 
Thine the Name all names before j 

Blessed here and everywhere, 
Blessed now and evermore. 

After the singing of the hymn the audience listened 
to the opening sermon of the occasion, by Dr. Mon- 
fort. 



\ 



A VISION 



OF THE 

KINGDOM OF GOD 



A DISCOURSE 

BY 

IRJETV. 0". 3VnO±sT^O^T, D. X). 

DELIVERED IN THE 

FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH AT FRANKLIN, IND., 

NOVEMEBEE 28, 1 874. 



A VISION OF THE KINGDOM OF GOD. 



TEXT. — Luke ix. 27 : "But I tell you of a truth, there be some 
standing here, which shall not taste of death, till they see the kingdom 
of God. v 

The promise of the text is an utterance of Jesus 
to his disciples upon their return from a missionary- 
tour. They "told him all that they had done." He 
undertook to have a private interview, "in a desert 
place," " but the people followed him." He spake to 
them, and healed them, and fed them by a miracle, 
and then was able to have a seasont)f conference and 
prayer with his disciples alone. His object seems to 
have been to give them a lesson on the spirituality of 
his kingdom. Even his own disciples seemed to 
cling to the idea, that he came to be a temporal sov- 
ereign, to sit on David's throne, and restore the king- 
dom to Israel, now in bondage to Rome. He begins 
by asking the question : " Whom say the people that 
I am ? " When you cast out devils and do other 
miracles in my name, the people must know that I 
have endued you with power from on high. " Whom 
say the people that I am?" The disciples testify- 
that the people regard Jesus as one sent of God — •■ 
John the Baptist, Elias, or some other old prophet 
risen from the dead. Jesus then asks : " But whom 
say ye that I am ? " Peter promptly answers : "The 

(17.) 



18 



FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH 



Christ of God." He answers correctly, but do he 
and the other disciples understand the mission of 
Christ ? Or do they expect only the restoration of 
their country and people to former power and glory 
in the sight of the nations ? Jesus then shows that 
his mission is not to be a temporal ruler, but to die 
and rise and reign over a kingdom that is spiritual, 
including all worlds. Peter replies : " Be it far from 
thee, Lord : this shall not be done unto thee." Jesus 
reproves him, and warns him that his followers were 
not to expect earthly good, but must bear the cross 
and be partners in his sufferings, if they expect to 
share in the glory of his kingdom. Then, to assure 
them of the spirituality of his kingdom, he promises 
them a vision of it. " There be some standing here 
which shall not taste of death till they see the king- 
dom of God." 

Eight days after the promise the fulfillment of it 
came on the mount of transfiguration. Peter and 
James and John are with him, and while he is pray- 
ing they see the kingdom of God. Jesus is transfig- 
ured before them, and they see his beauty and glory. 
Moses and Elias appear in glorious form, and speak 
with him of the decease which he should accomplish 
at Jerusalem. The disciples gaze upon the scene of 
glory. The promise is fulfilled. The King and the 
kingdom are more glorious than they had compre- 
hended. They rejoice. " Master, it is good for us to 
be here." Here fix thy throne and reign over all in 
heaven and earth. 

That the miracle of the transfiguration is the ful- 
fillment of the promise of the text is verified by a 



OF FRANKLIN, INDIANA. 



19 



reference to it afterward by Peter, when he declares 
that in preaching the kingdom and coming of Christ, 
" We have not followed cunningly devised fables, * * 
but were eye-witnesses of his majesty ; for he received 
from God the Father honor and glory, when there 
came such a voice to him from the excellent glory, 
This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased, 
and this voice, which came from heaven, we heard 
when we were with him in the holy mount." 

Let us to-day gaze upon this miraculous view of 
the kingdom of God. We may see the King in his 
beauty and glory, as he is now in heaven, and as he 
shall appear at his second coming ; and we may see 
representative subjects of his invisible kingdom, who 
are samples of the work of his grace and power, in 
the world beyond, and with them face to face some 
who had been brought into the earthly kingdom ; and 
we may understand, as we catch the theme of their 
conference, how the glory of Christ and the salvation 
of his people are connected with the decease accom- 
plished at Jerusalem. 

As I have been asked to open the services of the 
Semi-centenary of this church by an appropriate dis- 
course, it seemed to me that, as a proper observance 
of the occasion must bring us into communion with 
the many loved ones, once of your membership, but 
now of the Church on high, I could do no better 
than go with you to the holy mount, and point you 
to the transfigured King in his beauty, and to the 
saints from heaven in their glory, and to the chosen 
disciples of earth, grouped in one picture, in fellow- 
ship with each other concerning the death of Christ, 



20 



FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH 



which binds the Church on earth and in heaven in 
holy love and fellowship. 

1. In the study of this picture our hearts are first 
drawn to the central figure, which is Jesus Christ, the 
King all glorious. Did human language ever rise 
so high as in the description of his appearance ? Luke 
says : "As he prayed, the fashion of his countenance 
was altered, and his raiment was white and glister- 
ing." Matthew says he " was transfigured before 
them, and his face did shine as the sun, and his rai- 
ment was white as the light." The language of Mark 
is, if possible, more remarkable : " He was transfig- 
ured before them, and his raiment became shining, 
exceeding white as snow ; so as no fuller on earth 
can white them." After Jesus had accomplished his 
decease, had risen from the dead, and had ascended 
on high, the beloved disciple John, when in the spirit, 
on the Lord's day, in the isle of Patmos, had another 
vision of him, and in describing his appearance he 
uses some of the same terms employed by the evan- 
gelists in their account of the transfiguration : " His 
head and his hairs were white like wool, as white as 
snow " — " and his countenance was as the sun shineth 
in his strength." Surely such a vision of his glory 
might well drive from the minds and hearts of the 
disciples all thoughts of a temporal sovereignty, and 
stimulate them to go forth as the eye-witnesses of his 
majesty, and proclaim the coming of his kingdom. 

2. In exhibiting to these disciples the kingdom of 
God, it was not more important that the King should 
be seen in all his glory, than that the subjects of his 
rule and favor should be revealed. It was a most im- 



OF FRANKLIN, INDIANA. 



21 



portant part of the miracle that Moses and Elias ap- 
peared also in glory. They belonged to a part of the 
kingdom invisible to mortal eyes. They, or others of 
the classes to which they belonged, must be revealed 
to the disciples, to whom Jesus referred when he 
said: "There be some standing here which shall not 
taste of death till they see the kingdom of God." 

Of Moses and Elias it may be said, each is a rep- 
resentative of a class in the kingdom of God, beyond 
the vail that separates the Church on earth from the 
glorified on high. They may be supposed to repre- 
sent the " law and the prophets ; " but let it rather be 
said that they exhibit to Peter, James and John the 
two degrees of glory in the kingdom of God, to which 
saints attain, after their release from earth, either at 
once or at the resurrection of the just. 

(1.) Of these two degrees of glory Moses had 
passed into the first, and Elijah had attained to both. 
Moses was exhibited to the disciples, in the miracle 
upon the holy mount, in his glory, as a spirit of the 
just made perfect. He died a natural death. His 
body returned to dust, and his soul to God, a glorified 
spirit. He was an eminent, honored and useful serv- 
ant of God in the kingdom on earth. He served his 
day and generation well. He was born while the 
bloody decree of Pharaoh prevailed, ordering every 
male child born to the enslaved Israelites to be put to 
death. His mother, because she was a mother, and 
because she had faith in the God of Israel, and be- 
cause " he was a goodly child, hid him for three 
months, and when she could no longer hide him she 
took for him an ark of bulrushes, and put the child 
3 



22 



FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH 



therein ; and she laid it by the flags by the river's 
brink." God sent the daughter of the king to the 
river to bathe, and she saw and rescued the child, and 
he became her adopted son, with his own mother as 
his nurse. He was reared in the king's palace, and 
taught in all the wisdom of the Egyptians. He be- 
came the lawgiver of the Commonwealth of Israel, a 
type of the kingdom of God, and gave them a code 
which is the fountain of all good legislation. He was 
their deliverer from the bondage of Egypt, the type 
of the slavery of sin ; their leader through the wilder- 
ness, the type of the pilgrimage of the saints, to the 
borders of Canaan, flowing with milk and honey, the 
type of the kingdom on high, the rest that remains 
for the people of God, and on the top of Pisgah, with 
the goodly land in view, he gave up the ghost. God 
performed his funeral ceremonies, and no man know- 
eth his sepulcher to this day. 

No other man than Moses could have been chosen 
to give more interest to a vision of what the saints 
are in the kingdom of God, in the separate state, be- 
tween death and the resurrection. No one could 
have appeared to exemplify the glory of the spirits of 
the just made perfect, not even Adam, or Noah, or 
Abraham, with greater impression upon the minds 
and hearts of Peter, James and John, who were soon 
to be separated from Jesus, by the accomplishment of 
his decease at Jerusalem, and who were to be charged 
with the work of preaching the kingdom of God in 
the world. 

(2.) But as we proceed in the analysis of this 
vision of the kingdom of God, we come to the second 



OF FRANKLIN, INDIANA. 



23 



of the two men who appeared in glory and spake 
of the decease which Jesus was to accomplish. Elias 
is a saint, who had passed into the highest degree" 
attained in the kingdom of glory. In leaving the 
earth he did not go through the dark valley of the 
shadow of death. The clay tenement of his body 
was not unlocked to release the spirit, that it might 
be carried by angels to Abraham's bosom. He found 
no grave on earth. He will not rise from the dead at 
the resurrection. The account of his exit from earth 
is brief As he was walking and talking with Elisha 
" there appeared a chariot of fire and horses of fire, 
and parted them both asunder; and Elijah went up by 
a whirlwind into heaven. And Elisha saw it, and he 
cried, My father ! my father ! The chariot of Israel, and 
the horsemen thereof ! And he saw him no more." As 
it happened to Enoch, so Elijah was " translated that 
he should not see death." He left the earth to be 
glorified at once, both in body and spirit. When 
Moses died he enjoyed what Jesus promised the pen- 
itent malefactor on the cross by his side : " This day 
shalt thou be with me in paradise." His soul was 
made perfect in holiness, and passed immediately into 
glory, but his body awaits the sound of the trumpet 
at the last day. Elijah enjoyed, when he entered the 
chariot of fire, as much, and, in addition, all that 
glorified spirits shall attain when their bodies shall be 
raised, incorruptible, like the glorious body of Christ, 
and joined in body and spirit they enter upon the 
glory of complete redemption. In his translation 
Elijah passed through the same change, which will 
take place in the generation of saints who shall be 



24 



FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH 



alive on the earth at the second coming of Christ. 
" Behold, I show you a mystery. We shall not all 
sleep, but we shall all be changed. In a moment, in 
the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump; for the 
trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised in- 
corruptible, and we shall be changed,' for this cor- 
ruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal 
must put on immortality." We know not whether 
Enoch and Elijah are all in the world of glory, that 
have been translated and glorified in body and spirit, 
without seeing death. None others are named in the 
Book of Inspiration. Be this as it may, the promised 
sight of the kingdom would not be full without the 
presence of one of the class of Enoch and Elijah, 
that the disciples might see the full benefits and glories 
of Christ's reign. Elijah, a prince among prophets, 
must be a welcome representative in the sight of the 
admiring disciples. In him they see fallen man re- 
stored, and complete in body and spirit, by the grace 
and power of Christ. 

3. The transfiguration, as an earnest of Christ's 
glory, and the visible presence of Moses and Elias, 
who also appeared in glory, make up all that is mi- 
raculous, in this exhibition of the kingdom of God, 
and yet Peter, James and John are a part of the vis- 
ion, and belong to the kingdom of God. They had 
attained to a place in the kingdom as well as Moses 
and Elias. There are three degrees in the kingdom 
of God. The first is described in the interview be- 
tween Christ and Nicodemus: "The wind bloweth 
where it listeth, and thou nearest the sound thereof, 
but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it 



OF FRANKLIN, INDIANA. 



25 



goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit." Peter 
and James and John had been initiated into this de- 
gree. They were sons of God, by the belief of the 
truth and sanctification of the Spirit. The second de- 
gree is when at death we become glorified spirits, and 
the third is when the body is redeemed, and, in union 
with the Spirit, glorified, as it is to be at the resurrec- 
tion of the just, or by being changed at the coming 
of the Lord, or by translation, as in the case of Eli- 
jah. To this highest degree all the children of God, 
all the willing subjects of Christ's reign, will attain, 
when his work of power and grace shall be complete, 
at his last appearing, when he comes, the second time, 
without sin unto salvation. 

To fully comprehend and appreciate the exhibition 
of the kingdom of God, as seen in the transfiguration 
of Christ, and the appearance of Moses and Elias in 
glory, it is important to bear in mind the subject of 
conference between these shining ones, and its rela- 
tion to their glory and blessedness. One of the 
finest pictures, by an artist who has no superior, is a 
representation of the transfiguration of Christ. The 
beauty of the several figures of the picture, and the 
intense brightness and earnestness of every counte- 
nance, are evidences of the highest genius, but the 
canvas fails to reveal the theme of fellowship and 
the source of interest and joy that gild the scene. 
The Inspired Record, however, furnishes the key : 
" They spake of the decease which he should accom- 
plish at Jerusalem." Moses and Elias had been re- 
ceived to glory upon the anticipated merit of the 
death of Christ. Their security rested on his faith- 



26 



FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH 



fulness in fulfilling his pledge : " Lo, I come : in the 
volume of the book it is written of me, I delight to 
do thy will, O my God! " They did not doubt. The 
decease, however, was not yet accomplished, and being 
called into his presence, they speak of it as the price 
of their salvation, and the procuring cause of his 
mediatorial glory. The disciples gazing upon the 
thrilling scene, and hearing the words spoken by 
Moses and Elias, and the voice from heaven declar- 
ing : " This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well 
pleased ; hear ye him," no longer saw the kingdom of 
God, through a glass darkly. The glory of it over- 
whelmed them with wonder and joy, and opened 
their eyes to see the relation of the death of Christ 
to his own glory and the salvation of a lost world. 
In the light of this exhibition of the kingdom of 
God, as well as other teachings of the divine Word, 
the cross is the focus of all spiritual truth, and the 
radiating point of all saving knowledge. The death 
of Christ alone redeems the lost, and inspires them 
to rejoice in fellowship with him in his glory : " Thou 
art worthy * * * for thou wast slain, and hasfe 
redeemed us to God by thy blood out of every kin- 
dred, and people, and tongue, and nation ; and hast 
made us unto our God kings and priests." The dis- 
ciples saw with their eyes, and heard with their ears, 
and now they know how glorious is the kingdom of 
God, and how indispensable to its consummation the 
decease to be accomplished at Jerusalem. 

This vision of the kingdom of God suggests com- 
forts, counsels and warnings for us all on such an 
occasion as this. 



OP FRANKLIN, INDIANA. 



27 



1. It removes the vail between us and the invisi- 
ble world, and brings us to Mt. Zion, to the heavenly 
Jerusalem, to Jesus the Mediator of the new cove- 
nant, to the spirits of the just made perfect, and the 
blood of sprinkling, shed by the decease at Jerusa- 
lem. Of the great multitude that belonged to this 
church during fifty years from its organization, a 
large part have crossed the river and are in the bet- 
ter land. If the miracle performed upon Mount 
Tabor were repeated to-day, we, like Peter, James 
and John, should see Jesus in his glory, and our 
sainted kindred, fathers and mothers of this church, 
pastors, ruling elders, and others, in their glory. The 
Church on earth and in heaven is one. Let us open 
the eyes of our faith and see the cloud of witnesses 
surrounding us. Let us commune and worship with 
those who bore the heat and burden of the day in 
this church. They are beyond our sight, but surely 
not beyond the vision of our faith, at such a time as 
this. 

Come, let us join our friends above, 

That have obtained the prize j 
And on the eagle wings of love, 

To joys celestial rise. 

Let saints below his praises sing, 

With those to glory gone; 
For all the servants of our King, 

In heaven and earth are one. 

One family we dwell in him, 

One Church above, beneath — 
Though now divided by the stream, 

The narrow stream of death. 



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FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH 



One army of the living God, 

To his commands we bow j 
Part of the host have crossed the flood, 

And part are crossing now. 

In the light of this vision of the kingdom of God, 
how sweet the thought that all who have gone to 
glory from this place are one with us. Our worship 
to-day is like life from the dead. It is as if all, whose 
pilgrimage was in this church, were here again to 
join in the communion of saints, to sit together with 
us in this heavenly place in Christ Jesus, while we 
sing and pray and commune, and record the loving- 
kindness and tender mercy of a covenant-keeping 
God — theirs and ours. 

2. A solemn warning also comes from the mount 
of transfiguration. The kingdom of God, in this 
vision, not only reveals Christ in his glory, with glo- 
rified saints, and saints of earth as his servants and 
the subjects of his favor and love ; but at the foot of 
the mount the devil holds in cruel bondage a human 
sufferer, and Jesus comes down and casts him out. 
The decease at Jerusalem has exalted the God-man 
to be the Ruler both of heaven and earth, both of the 
righteous and of the wicked. The approval and re- 
ward of his death have been proclaimed from heaven : 
" Sit thou on my right hand, until I make thy foes 
thy footstool." " Who, being in the form of God, 
thought it not robbery to be equal with God : but 
made himself of no reputation, and took upon him 
the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness 
of men; and being found in fashion as a man, he 
humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, 



OF FRANKLIN, INDIANA. 



29 



even the death of the cross. Wherefore God also 
hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which 
is above every other name : that at the name of Jesus 
every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and 
things in earth, and things under the earth, and that 
every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is 
Lord, to the glory of God the Father." The king- 
dom of God includes not only his willing and obe- 
dient children, but also those that rebel against his 
reign and reject his grace. You must either be saved 
by his death, or be dashed in pieces like a potter's 
vessel. He will reign over you either in your salva- 
tion or in your destruction. He offers to save you. 
He says : " Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall 
be as white as snow: though they be red like crim- 
son, they shall be as wool." If you persist in rebel- 
ling against his gracious rule, you will fall under his 
wrath. He will declare : " Those, mine enemies, 
which would not that I should reign over them, bring 
them hither and slay them before me." " Kiss the 
Son, lest he be angry, and ye perish from the way, 
when his wrath is kindled but a little." " Blessed 
are all they that put their trust in him." 

Prayer was offered and the following concluding 
hymn was sung: 

Sweet the time, exceeding sweet ! 
When saints together meet, 
When the Savior is the theme, 
When they joy to sing of him. 

Sing we then eternal love, 
Such as did the Father move: 
He beheld the world undone, 
Loved the world, and gave his Son. 

4 



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FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH 



Sing the Son's amazing love ; 
How he left the realms above, 
Took our nature and our place, 
Lived and died to save our race. 

Sing we, too, the Spirit's love; 
With our stubborn hearts he strove, 
Filled our minds with grief and fear, 
Brought the precious Savior near. 

Sweet the place, exceeding sweet, 
Where the saints in glory meet } 
Where the Savior's still the theme, 
Where they see and sing of him. 



The service was closed with the benediction. 



The evening services were introduced by singing 
the anthem : " When the Lord doth build up Zion." 
The Scriptures were read by Rev. A. B. Morey, after 
which the following hymn was sung : 

Welcome, days of solemn meeting j 
Welcome, days of praise and prayer $ 

Far from earthly scenes retreating, 
In your blessings we would share ; 

Sacred seasons, 
In your blessings we would share. 

Be thou near us, blessed Savior, 

Still at morn and eve the same; 
Give us faith that can not waver j 

Kindle in us heaven's own flame j 
Blessed Savior, 

Kindle in us heaven's own flame. 

When the fervent heart is glowing, 

Holy Spirit, hear that prayer: 
When the song of praise is flowing, 

Let that song thine impress bear; 
Holy Spirit, 

Let that song thine impress bear. 

Prayer was offered by Rev. Robt. D. Morris, D. D., 
of Oxford, Ohio, after which the congregation sang 
the hymn : 



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FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH 



Children of the heavenly King, 
As ye journey, sweetly singj 
Sing your Savior's worthy praise, 
Glorious in his works and ways. 

Ye are traveling home to God 
In the way the fathers trod j 
They are happy now, and ye 
Soon their happiness shall see. 

Fear not, brethren j joyful stand 
On the borders of your land j 
Jesus Christ, your Father's Son, 
Bids you undismayed go on. 

Lord, submissive make us go, 
Gladly leaving all below j 
Only thou our Leader be, 
And we still will follow thee. 



Th€ 6Iopy olM Departed. 



SBBMOIT 

BY 

REV. A, B. MOREY, 

PASTOR OF THE FIFTH PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH, CINCINNATI. 



THE GLORY OF THE DEPARTED. 



TEXT. — 1 John iii. 2, 3 : " Beloved, now are we the sons of God; and 
it doth not yet appear what we shall be ; but we know that when he 
shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is. 
And every man that hath this hope in him, purifieth himself, even as 
he is pure." 

This is a royal text. It is crowned with a wealth 
of meaning that must always give it the very chief 
place in all our ideas of our future life. It tells us 
first of all what we are who believe in Christ. We 
belong to the royal family of heaven — we are upheld 
by the same love which upholds those around the throne 
of God, and we have promised to us an inheritance 
of glory. These are only the initial letters of our 
condition, as children of God. No one can tell what 
it all means. But this much we can experience. We 
are loved, cherished, supported, by our Heavenly 
Father. 

Once we were not that. " Now are we the sons of 
God!' That is our glorious position and privilege at 
present. There was a time, however, when we 
were in no sense the children of God as we now 
are. There was a time when the writer of these 
words, and they to whom he wrote them, were ''the 
children of wrath." To be a child of God, as it is 
here stated, is to be born again, and to be born is to 
begin to be what we were not before. Many of us 
can remember the time when this family spirit of God 

(35) 



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FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH 



was not in us. We had no such intimate interest in 
him as a child has in a parent. The mere things of 
this world took up all our time and thoughts. To 
get on, to push our way upward in this earthly life, 
was our highest aim. Anything above that which 
pertains to this present life, anything like God's ser- 
vice, God's love, God's worship or a life with Him here- 
after, all such things were dull and stupid. We could 
not care for them ; we wondered why sometimes. The 
fact was, something was dead or not begun in us. As 
the electric spark can not travel along the line, away 
from which the wire is bent, so our souls once bent 
from God, there is no way for our love to find 
him. There is a blank between him and us. That 
is the case with every one not born of God. Just try 
it. Put the simplest question about this new life to 
any one not converted, and what will be the answer? 
A vacant, puzzled look, a scornful laugh, or utter in- 
difference. The person knows nothing about it. He 
scarcely believes in the existence of such a thing, and 
you can not prove, to his satisfaction, that there is 
such a life. Can a man who has never learned the 
meaning and use of figures follow you in the solution 
of a difficult problem in mathematics? He has not 
the slightest idea of it, no more than a blind man has 
of color, or a deaf mute has of sound. As little can 
one outside of God's family comprehend anything 
about the great glorious spiritual life inside of that 
family. 

There is such a life. Says one who is born into 
that divine household : " Now are we the sons of 
God." Now have we, by some grand, strange process, 



OF FRANKLIN, INDIANA. 



37 



become alive to God. We are especially, individually- 
endeared to him — endowed with the same nature with 
him who made heaven and earth. What a position 
in which to be placed here on this earth ! The glory 
of it bursts forth in these words of the apostle right 
before the text: "Behold, what manner of love the 
Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be 
called the sons of God: therefore," therefore, "the 
world knoweth us not, because it knew him not." 

There is no mistake about this very high place 
where we believers in Christ stand. " Now are we 
the sons of God." That much is sure, certain, known, 
evident. 

And the narrow space between the past and future 
which John calls " now," is marked off by him as the 
spot on which we can stand, and say, and show that. 
It is a revealed promontory in the midst of a dark^ 
infinite ocean, made bright by this one beam of light 
from God's throne : that, we are the children of God. 
The line of thought into which we were led this 
morning left us upon this present point of time looking 
forward to what we are to be. I prefer keeping right 
on in the thought, rather than draw your minds aside 
to what I had intended to present to you. My ex- 
perience so far in this anniversary has not been what 
I expected. I was indulging the idea that I would 
love to linger in the past, but I find that every thought 
sent back into the past goes bounding forward into 
the future. I can not think of the children of God 
who once lived, and loved, and labored here, without 
thinking of where and how they are living now. My 
mind has been like a bow. The further back into 



38 



FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH 



what has been I draw it, the further forward the 
thoughts fly to what will be. So to me this occasion 
is like an illuminated platform, thrown up for us to 
come upon and look off and onward to what we, and 
those who have gone before, " shall be." Standing 
then, where we do this evening, with the light of our 
new divine relationship shining upon us, with the 
good deeds of the founders and builders of this church 
uplifting us, let us lift our eyes and see the glory of 
the departed : see what lies before us — what all this 
that has been done for us, and to us, and by us, will 
bring us. 

The very first look of the apostle was into that 
which he did not know. Before describing what we 
shall be, he stops, dazzled by the light which no man 
can approach unto, and says : " It doth not yet appear 
what we shall be." We shall be something more 
than we are now, something which we have never 
yet been, something of which we can not form an 
idea. This "we shall be." He does not say: "It 
doth not appear whether we shall be," but what 
Whatever mysterious and unknown changes the fu- 
ture may bring us, we shall live on and that gloriously. 
That much of the dark vail that hangs over the future 
has been drawn aside. We shall be, but what is not 
yet clear. Our Lord himself now and then lifts 
enough of the vail to show a spark or two of the 
coming glory. But each revelation starts more ques- 
tions than it settles. He tells us that in certain re- 
spects we shall be as the angels of God, but what are 
these angels ? Who can tell ? We learn from him 
that we will be with him, where he is, and behold his 



OF FRANKLIN, INDIANA. 



39 



glory, which the Father has given him. But what is 
that glory? In what form shall we see him? In 
what form shall we be ? Who knows ? We know 
that when our souls quit our bodies, we will not be 
like strangers in a strange land, but we will feel at 
home with our Savior; but how, or where, or when? 
Paul has a good deal to say about our future bodies. 
He proves the great" fact that the dead shall rise and 
when he comes to answer the question : " How are the 
dead raised up, and with what body do they come?" 
we might naturally suppose that now the question — 
what we shall be — will be answered. But no. He tells 
us that we shall be changed, raised in incorruption, in 
glory, in power ; but he drops no word that explains 
what this spiritual body is, or of the process by which 
we pass into it. This much is certain : " Flesh and 
blood can not inherit the kingdom of God." But 
what an uncertainty does this very certainty throw 
around our future. What kind of a state is this in 
which flesh and blood can not come? Suppose a 
steamer had been wrecked on a rock, and a party had 
undertaken to raise her, under the contract that she 
would be exactly as she was, only no wood or iron 
should inherit her. What sort of a vessel would that 
be, without wood or iron ? What sort of a body 
shall ours be in its celestial condition, without flesh 
and blood — without that which is now our frame- 
work and locomotive power? Can we conceive of a 
body in which all of what we now see of each other 
shall be left out, and yet not so as to destroy our per- 
sonal identity, or rob us of a single individual feat- 
ure ? Every part of our personal being will be pre- 



40 



FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH 



served perfect ; for this mortal will not be laid aside. 
It must put on immortality. It will not be transformed, 
or transferred,^ transfigured. We are " to be clothed 
upon with an house which is from heaven."- Can you 
conceive of such a condition ? Who can tell what 
we shall be ? We know that we shall rise when this 
physical condition shall be changed, or we shall be 
unchained from it, like a bird freed from a snare. But 
after all, how shall we feel when lifted up ? What 
shall be our experience ? We know that we will have 
a body of great beauty and power. Paul says it will be 
a glorious body, but when we send our thoughts out in 
search of what it all means, we have to fall back upon 
the conviction that it is more than we can think out. 
After we have said all that can be said about it, we 
have to still say it is nobler, lovelier, more glorious 
than that. 

The Bible's only appeal is to nature. That is all 
that we can do. Go to something which we can see 
or imagine as our guiding thought, and follow it as 
far as it will take us. Think of the old eagle brood- 
ing over its nest, and the eaglet hid away in the shell. 
Suppose that unhatched eagle* should undertake to 
realize how it would feel when it gets out of its shell 
and flies from the nest. By and by the shell is picked 
away, and the eaglet spreads itself, but as yet un- 
fledged, with no power in its wings, no power any- 
where belonging to it, it lies quietly in its nest, fed 
by the parent-bird. And as it lies there, peering over 
the nest and looking down upon the rocky world 
from off its cliff, what can it be supposed to know of 
flight? But by and by there comes a day when 



OF FRANKLIN, INDIANA. 



41 



power is given to it to fly, and it spreads its wings, 
and with a mighty sweep rises upward and swings 
round in vast circuits of the air, and feels itself in 
every feather an eagle. But how much think you did 
that eagle know about it in the nest? How much 
more are we, in this life, than just hatched in our 
nests. We peer over the edges of our being, and 
look off into the vast universe of " what we shall be," 
wondering how we shall feel when we fly into what 
is promised; but who can tell when the word comes 
for us to go, and power is given us to fly, and we, 
leaving the world and all the things thereon behind, 
speed away through all the realms of glory ? Who can 
tell, from our simple experience here, what that great 
flight into another life shall be ? It will be something 
magnificent, transcendent. We can not be too ex- 
travagant in our words about it ; but how little do the 
words bring to us when we utter them. The Apostle 
John was permitted to look over into the spiritual 
world, and from what he saw he draws a very vivid 
description of our heavenly life. He lets us see that 
none of the things that are now pressing upon us will 
touch us there. But the description is drawn entirely 
from our habits and needs here, not from what we 
shall be and have there. It is as if he had helped us 
to build out of our present thoughts and feelings a 
ladder upon which we can climb and look over into 
heaven, but when we come to place it against the 
walls of the celestial city it is too short, and does not 
lift us high enough to make it " appear what we shall 
be." It places us, however, far above and out of the 
reach of all the evils of this world. There is nothing 



42 



FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH 



in our present imperfect state that can convey to us 
what our future perfect state shall be. It is like every- 
thing else about us. In the helplessness of infancy 
it does not appear what the might of manhood shall 
be. We will outgrow many things as we go on with 
our experience and education. These things that 
seem to be everything to us now, may be nothing to 
us then. While the grain is growing, the stem is 
about everything there is to it. When it begins to 
top out, the husks and little wrappers that surround 
it and nurture it are the all-important things. But 
when the wheat is ripe, and ready to be reaped, what 
do we call these various nursing agencies that were 
so necessary to the growth of the grain ? Chaff. 
And what is that good for? Nothing. It has done 
its work and is thrown aside, as of no more use. 
Something like that takes place in the soul. Paul 
says there are many things that are almost everything 
to us now, but their sole sphere is local and physical. 
When our souls are ripe for glory, what is so neces- 
sary will drop off as chaff And who can tell what 
shall be our condition when we have no longer to 
contend with what now takes up our time. When all 
these appetites which we have to feed shall be left 
behind ; when we can say to sleep, " farewell," and to 
bread and water, " I have no more need of you " — 
what difference will all that make with us ? We do 
not know enough to know anything about it. After 
all we know about ourselves, and we know much, we 
have not yet got hold of anything that will make it 
"appear what we shall be." It is well that it is so* 
We should be homesick for heaven if we knew a lit- 



OF FRANKLIN, INDIANA. 



43 



tie more. If we could catch one glimpse of the glory- 
that is waiting for us, it would require more grace 
than any of us have to stay here much longer. 

There is one fact, however, in the future, which 
John says further on in the text, we do know, and it 
is such a blessed part of this unrevealed glory that it 
makes up for all we do not know. He states it in the 
text as if it was everything. He puts all this that is 
uncertain in such a shape around this that is certain 
that the known stands out more clearly because of 
the unknown; as the painter puts upon the canvas 
the dark background, in order that the one central 
figure may shine out clear and distinct. And what is 
this one positive fact? This is the way it comes out 
in the text : " Beloved, now are we the sons of God, 
and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we 
know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like 
him." We shall be like our Jesus ! Our heaven is 
to grow out of what he is, so that we may not have a 
single thought about it in which he is not. He is to 
be to all there the center of our very being, so that 
when we come to ask about what we are, or shall be, 
our best answer will be found by pointing to him and 
seeing what he is. There is heaven — to be with him. 
That is heaven — to be like him. That is the great 
aim of the whole gospel — to show us Christ and make 
us like him. "The Lamb is the light " of heaven and 
of the entire pathway to heaven. Our Christian life 
begins with Christ, as the day begins with the sun. 
The first conviction which the Spirit of God flashes 
across our guilty souls is : How unlike Christ we are! 
And the prayer that finds its way the most frequently 



44 



FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH 



up to him is : Make me like thyself. That is the 
deep daily struggle of every saved soul — to be Christ- 
like. The mere fact that we are in any respect now- 
like him helps us over the rough places of duty. It 
reconciles us to the trials of life, to remember that 
we are even "partakers of his sufferings." But to be 
like him in glory, what will that be? Not perhaps 
like him in grandeur, but in kind; in kind of body, in 
kind of mind, in kind of moral nature. There is 
something inspiring in that. We sorrow now because 
we are so unlike that perfect pattern. While he was 
here in the flesh he labored day and night. How 
slothful we are ! What prayers he offered up, with 
strong crying and tears. How lifeless our praying is ! 
It was his meat and drink, to do the will of God. 
How selfish we live ! He triumphed over every 
temptation. How shamefully we yield ! We seem 
to be entirely different. But all that is to be changed. 
" We shall be like him." That we know. How can 
that be? " For we shall see him as he is." Marvel- 
ous must that sight be. Wonderful must he be, that 
the seeing of him can bring about such a change in 
us. We can only think about him now, and our 
thoughts are partial and mixed with more or less of 
error. His character is only dimly outlined before 
us. Before we can get much comfort from our views 
of what he is, we must reason them out and justify 
them before our judgment And we reason so much 
before we let our love go out to him, that we are 
chilled even when we are convinced. We keep him 
so long knocking at the door, hold him so much aloof 
from us, that when we do admit him we scarcely feel 



OF FRANKLIN, INDIANA. 



45 



the warmth of his presence. But there are times, as 
many of us know, when our thoughts of Christ seem 
to start up within us with a strange, sudden self-illu- 
mination, when what Christ is comes upon us with 
such an overpowering vividness as to demolish every 
doubt, and bring in on our souls a peace that is just 
unspeakable and full of glory. I remember going 
once in the shop of our beloved Bro. Sloan, when he 
met me with a glow of gladness on his face and with 
both hands extended to me, said: " Oh, I've had such 
a sight of my Savior ! " Kneeling down he prayed for 
you and me, as I never heard even him pray, lifting 
me up to almost see what he seemed to see. The 
next prayer-meeting in the church was the beginning 
of that wonderful revival, when so many were gath- 
ered in the kingdom of Christ. It began in that 
blacksmith shop. Such visions are rare and brief, 
but they are the promises of what shall be. They are 
the premonitions of the opening of some inward eye 
which shall see and feel as we can now only imagine. 
They are the foreshadowing of the time when these 
glorious realities which now lie behind the material 
face of things, of the existence of which we are only 
told, shall be seen in the clear light in which we 
shall see our Savior " face to face." Who has not 
hungered for such a sight of Christ ? We believe he 
is ever near us. We know " he is very present in 
trouble." He whispers thoughts to us at times, as 
we go along in our duty, that quicken our steps and 
start us up as we walk along the street. But he 
never shows himself. We have never seen him as yet. 

But we shall see him. What if he should show him- 
5 



46 



FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH 



self now? What a rapture of joy would rush into 
our souls if we could look upon him this moment, 
upon him whom our souls love ! The promise is we 
shall see him soon, not as he was, but as he is ; not as 
his head was once, torn with thorns, but as it is, 
crowned with glory; not as his hands were, wrenched 
with agony, but as they are, wielding the scepter of 
universal dominion ; not as his face was, marred more 
than that of any man, but as it is, gleaming with the 
gladness and glory of God. Then we shall be like him 
— with no more burden, no more sorrow, no more sin 
than he has. I can not tell you how I am affected by 
such a hope. It seems as if Christ himself was 
strangely moved when he comes to speak of it. You 
have noticed the fond, tender, caressing language in 
which he speaks when he is telling us about having 
us with him in glory. There are some of the words 
which he has inspired that twine themselves around 
my soul, as I have seen the morning glory climb 
upon the trellis work, twining in and around and 
about it, and will not let go. There are some say- 
ings in the Scripture that run in upon my soul, and 
hang their tendrils about my heart and cover it with 
blossoms that make my whole being bloom with joy. 
This text is one. That passage is another where God 
says he will be with his people, and shall walk with 
them, and dwell with them, and wipe all tears from 
their eyes, and they shall go no more out from his 
presence. There will be no night there, no need of 
the sun, for the glory of God shall lighten it. The 
joy that beams from his face will light up our life 
There are many sayings of his Word when he seems 



OP FRANKLIN, INDIANA. 



47 



to clasp his children tenderly to himself and assure 
each of them separately, and all of them together, that 
their pilgrimage is over — that their education is far 
enough along for them to come home and never leave 
him forever. Why,f Christ tells us that when a single 
one of us shall turn by repentance to go to that 
home in heaven, there shall be "joy in the presence 
of the angels of God." God is so glad that he shows 
it to all aroundghim, and they too catch the fire of it. 

Oh ! when " we shall see him as he is " in his love 
for us, in the gladness of his heart over us; when 
"the joy that was set before him," and for which he 
" endured the cross, despising the shame ; " when that 
joy is fulfilled, and we see him in it, and share it with 
him — why, what change will not the sight of such 
a scene make in us ! Make us like him ? That it 
must; it shall. So glorious will be the sight that it 
will awaken whatever there is in us, and we shall be 
surprised at what we are and can be. I have read 
this story of an organ. The player was a poor per- 
former. One evening, being sick, a stranger offered 
to play for the evening worship. He played through 
the simple airs that were usually played, then he be- 
gan to feel his way along the keys with such strange 
and hitherto unknown power that those who listened 
turned and looked amazed at what they heard. And 
as the stranger went on, opening sweeter and sweeter 
harmonies, the organ seemed to the worshipers to be 
something different from what it had ever been before. 
No one knew the instrument, so new was its power. 
So when Christ shall pass the hand of his love over 
our souls, and bring out the long-delayed music of 



48 



FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH 



our hearts, the long- hidden powers of our being, 
those wonderful harmonies of our nature which now 
we can not understand, and of which we seem to be 
utterly incapable and unconscious, then methinks all 
the heaven will stop to listen as they hear the new 
song of redemption, which our Redeemer will bring 
out from us. We will be amazed at what we are in 
the hands of Christ, as he says he will surprise us by 
showing us what we have been to him in doing our 
little good deeds to the least of his. Then shall be- 
gin to dawn upon us " what we shall be." 

And when shall all this be ? The only answer that 
comes to us is, " When he shall appear." In his ap- 
pearing shall all things appear. God has willed that 
the morning which shall throw light upon our whole 
future can only dawn at the second coming of Christ. 
However pure and happy may be the state of those 
who once served the Savior here before us, and with 
us, and now are serving him in the spirit world, " it 
doth not yet appear what they shall be," and will not 
till he comes the second time, and come he will. 
That is taken for granted by the apostle. He merely 
says : " When he shall appear," as if it was absolutely 
sure. It is as certain as the word and oath of God 
can make it. There is no more doubt of this " appear- 
ing of our Lord," than there is of the sun rising out 
of this night and make all things clear that are now 
hidden in the darkness. Oh ! surer than that ; for 
there is some doubt about the sun appearing to-mor- 
row. There is a night coming when the only light 
to bring in the day will be Christ come. 

Now to that one bright fact in the future we are di- 



OF FRANKLIN, INDIANA. 



-49 



rected to look. While we are given to understand 
that the vail must still hide the secret things of God, 
until his own hand shall draw it aside, yet we are 
over and over again told to " look for that glorious 
appearing of the great God, and our Savior Jesus 
Christ," as if that luminous point ahead of us would 
illuminate everything. And what will follow the look- 
ing at this spot of which only the bare bright fact we 
know? While I ask the question, does there not 
start up in your mind the answer, or what is the 
same, this question : How can I prepare for this 
great sight, so that whatever my future turns out to 
be, I may be fitted for it ? What does the apostle say 
about that ? Here it is : " Every man that hath this 
hope in him purifieth himself, . even as he is pure." 
Let us be sure that we read these words rightly, and 
understand what they say. As they are printed in 
our Bibles, there is danger of making a mistake. 
They look as if they meant, Every man that hath this 
hope in him, within himself, cherishing in his own 
heart a hope of heaven, that he, because of that hope 
in himself, will purify himself. But that is not true, 
and it takes all the force out of the words to say so. 
Very many are cherishing a hope of heaven without 
a care of holiness. Purity is not always the result of 
such a hope. If, however, you will take your Bibles 
and put a capital H to the word " him," in whom the 
hope is, and make it mean the Lord and not the man, 
we can get the correct idea. For it really reads, 
Every one that has this hope in Christ, resting on 
Christ, that man, and because of that hope in Christ, 
will purify himself. That is true, and it puts life in 



50 



FIRST PRESBYTER! A.N CHURCH 



the words to say it. There is no reason whatever 
why any one who is cherishing any other hope should 
expect it to be well with him. It is a mere fancy and 
has no force in it. The hope that purifieth rests on 
a sure foundation. It is grounded on the Son of God, 
not on the purity of our past lives, or character of 
our present desires, or on anything that is our own, 
but solely on our blessed Lord. There is something 
in that to stimulate us to purity, to kindle in us the 
desire to be as pure as he is. It will keep up a life- 
long struggle to be the persons the judgment-day 
calls for, and for whom God's heaven is waiting. 

It is well to stop and think about this high stand- 
ard of purity, which Christ sets before us in order to 
stir up efforts and purposes to be pure. The artist 
sometimes puts a perfectly pure pebble in his hand 
while at his work, and once in a while looks at it. It 
is to tone up his eyesight. In working paints into 
tints the eye gets down and dull, and there must be 
some color at hand that is perfectly pure, to sharpen 
up his sight, so that he can distinguish the nice 
shades. In working in this world, where there is so 
much to lower our standard of right and wrong, our 
spiritual sight becomes worn and weakened, and we 
need continually something to tone up our moral 
sense. The holiness and heaven that Christ has pre- 
pared for us, the perfect peace and purity that dwell 
there with him and in him, that is the very ideal of 
all that is beautiful, and true, and noble, and loving. 
To make us look at that which we can be in Christ, 
so as to make us like him, God sometimes dark- 
ens all the sky save where he is. He spreads suffer- 



OF FRANKLIN, INDIANA. 



51 



ing all around us, until there is no place left to which 
we can flee for refuge but Christ. 

There is an aged blind woman, whose sightless 
eyeballs have been straining to see the day for these 
years. It is said that her room is one of the sunniest 
in her city. She says : " Christ is the light thereof." 
It is that same light that will gild the waters of death, 
and make it "the shining shore" of which we some- 
times sing. 

Does it not pay, then, to be a Christian ? Has 
it not paid our beloved brothers and sisters, who 
have gone to see Christ before us ? The joy 
comes out in all directions ; but what makes it 
doubly delightful to us now, gathered as we are to 
renew our friendships, is the very precious part of our 
reward, which comes to us in the recognition of each 
other in our heavenly home. It is in this struggle to 
be like Christ that we get the preparation to know 
one another. The suffering that cost us to be pure, 
"as he is pure," will be one great part of the joy of 
recognition. Strange that there should ever be a 
doubt about that among us who have labored to- 
gether in the Lord. The doubt can only come from 
forgetting who we are and what we have been doing. 
A few years ago there strolled into a town in Illinois 
an old drummer with his drum. His remarkable 
skill drew around him a large crowd of citizens, 
among them an old fifer who lived there. It was ar- 
ranged that they two should play together. They 
were both old and gray, and bowed down with infirm- 
ity. As they went on with their music the drummer 
dropped his sticks, turned square round and faced 



52 



FIR8T PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH 



the fifer, rubbed one hand over his eyes, and with the 
other pushed up the fifer's cap, and, peering into his 
eyes, said: "Is not this John? Did not you play 
that at Lundy's Lane, as we charged the British when 
the sun was setting? Did not I drum it there by 
your side?" The fife and drumsticks dropped, and 
then two long-forgotten comrades in war were in each 
other's arms. It had been nearly half a century since 
they had met. Time had hacked at their bodies, till 
they were seamed with scars. But there was 
something in the music, or in the men, that had 
not changed. I can not tell how it will be, my friends, 
but somehow, yonder in heaven, we, who have "battled 
together for the Lord," will find out each other, 
changed as we shall be. There will be something in 
our voice, or form, or flash of the eye, or simply in 
what we say, or in the way we say it, or in what we 
do. There will be something that will reveal the 
wonderful secret. Every one of Christ's children 
who have walked these streets of Franklin, we will 
know as they walk the streets of the New Jerusalem. 
And think you the joy of that meeting will not more 
than make up for all the self-denial through which 
we had to go to be Christ-like, and all the pain which 
our purity cost us. Thank God for the service and 
suffering for Christ that marks us off for that heavenly 
meeting, that makes and preserves our friends to us. 
It is this holy work that has brought us together once 
more on earth, that makes us one for heaven and in 
heaven. 

After prayer, by Rev. Eliphalet Kent, of Shelby - 
ville, the congregation joined in singing: — 



OF FRANKLIN, INDIANA. 



53 



All hail the power of Jesus' name ! 

Let angels prostrate fall ^ 
Bring forth the royal diadem, 

And crown him Lord of all. 

Crown him, ye martyrs of our God, 

Who from his altar call; 
Extol the stem of Jesse's rod, 

And crown him Lord of all. 

Ye chosen seed of Israel's race, 

Ye ransomed from the fall ; 
Hail him, who saves you by his grace, 

And crown him Lord of all. 

Sinners, whose love can ne'er forget 

The wormwood and the gall; 
Go, spread your trophies at his feet, 

And crown him Lord of all. 

Let every kindred, every tribe, 

On this terrestrial ball, 
To him all majesty ascribe, 

And crown him Lord of all. 

Oh ! that with yonder sacred throng, 

We at his feet may fall 5 
We'll join the everlasting song, 

And crown him Lord of all. 

The benediction was pronounced by Rev. A. 
Parker, of Columbus. 



6 



At half past ten o'clock Sabbath morning a very- 
large congregation assembled to hear the sermon to 
be preached by Rev. J. F. Tuttle, D. D., President of 
Wabash College. 

The choir sang the anthem : " Seek ye the Lord.'' 
President Tuttle invoked the divine blessing, after 
which the entire congregation joined in singing the 
hymn : 

Blow ye the trumpet, blow ! 

The gladly solemn sound; 
Let all the nations know, 

To earth's remotest bound, 
The year of jubilee is come; 
Return, ye ransomed sinners, home. 

Exalt the Lamb of God, 

The sin-atoning Lamb ! 
Redemption by his blood, 

Through every land, proclaim : 
The year of jubilee is come; 
Return, ye ransomed sinners, home. 

Ye slaves of sin and hell ! 

Your liberty receive, 
And safe in Jesus dwell, 

And blest in Jesus live: 
The year of jubilee is come ; 
Return, ye ransomed sinners, home. 

The gospel trumpet hear, 

The news of pardoning grace : 
Ye happy souls, draw nearj 

Behold your Savior's face: 
The year of jubilee is come; 
Return, ye ransomed sinners, home. 

(54) 



OF FRANKLIN, INDIANA. 



55 



Jesus, our great High Priest, 

Has full atonement made ; 
Ye weary spirits, rest; 

Ye mourning souls be glad : 
The year of jubilee is come ; 
Return, ye ransomed sinners, home. 

President Tuttle then read selections of Scripture 
and led the congregation in prayer. 

The pastor announced the following hymn, which 
was sung: 

Hark ! the song of jubilee, 
Loud as mighty thunders roar, 
Or the fullness of the sea, 
When it breaks upon the shore I 
Hallelujah ! for the Lord 
Good omnipotent, shall reign ! 
Hallelujah ! let the word 
Echo round the earth and main. 

Hallelujah ! hark, the sound, 

From the depths unto the skies, 

Wakes above, beneath, around, 

All creation's harmonies ! 

See Jehovah's banner furled, 

Sheathed his sword, he speaks — 'tis done, 

And the kingdoms of this world 

Are the kingdoms of his Son ! 

He shall reign from pole to pole, 
With illimitable sway : 
He shall reign, when like a scroll 
Yonder heavens are passed away, 
Then the end: beneath his rod 
Man's last enemy shall fall : 
Hallelujah ! Christ in God, 
God in Christ, is all in all I 



56 



FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH 



After some very appropriate introductory remarks, 
in which President Tuttle referred to the church as 
"occupying an illuminated platform," and about to 
" commemorate the virtues and works of the brave 
men and women who had dared to meet the hard- 
ships of pioneer life, in order to lay here the founda- 
tion of homes and society," he announced as his 
theme, God's Work in the World the Last Fifty 
Years. 



1824. 1874. 

GOD'S WORK IN THE WORLD 

THE LAST 

FIFTY YEAES. 



.A. DISOOUBSE 

PREACHED AT 

Franklin, Indiana, November 29, 187 Jf. 



JOSEPH F. TUTTLE, D. D., 

President of Wabash College. 



GOD'S WORK IN THE WORLD THE LAST FIFTY 
YEARS. 



TEXT. — Numbers xxiii. 23: " What God hath wrought!" 

My theme is, God's work in the world the last fifty 
years ; and, in the first place, let me show in what 
ways it may be said that God has been working in 
the world. 

In general God works through the so-called laws 
of nature. These are a necessary condition to the 
more specific methods which I shall name. Progress 
in any department of nature, or in the spheres where 
rational and free human beings act, is conditioned on 
the constancy with which the Creator works through 
the laws of nature. 

It is a very surprising and beautiful fact that human 
progress is very closely connected with the work of 
men of genius. This progress has been dependent 
on the scientific discoveries, the practical inventions, 
and upon the philosophical formulas which express 
the rights of men in society, and their faith as moral 
beings in God. The ordinary mind gropes in vain in 
the midst of the endless mazes of material and spir- 
itual phenomena until the men of genius open the 
hidden mysteries of nature, and announce the great 
principles which determine man's relations in the fam- 
ily, the society, and the moral government 

(59) 



60 



FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH 



Mr. Carlyle pleasantly speaks of such men as "the 
living light-fountain, which it is good and pleasant to 
be near ; * * * not as a kindled lamp only, but 
as a natural luminary, shining by the gift of Heaven." 

What a debt the world owes to the men who have 
made the great discoveries of the forces which have 
given such an impulse to human progress, electricity, 
electro-magnetism, steam, and who have invented the 
steamboat, the railway, the telegraph, the mowing 
and the sewing machines! Surely such are "lumin- 
aries shining by the gift of Heaven." 

And so are the men who have genius to make and 
employ money to produce values. The silver and 
the gold are the Lord's, if for no other reason that 
money-makers receive their gift to make money from 
Him who taught Newton the path among the stars, 
and the scientist the secret things of the Lord in 
nature. 

The same is true of the men who have announced 
the great principles which guard human rights, prin- 
ciples formulated by statesmen, fought for by heroes* 
and died for by martyrs. They are God's workers, 
and in so saying I do not assert that each one of 
these workers is a good man. La Place was a great 
astronomer; but in saying, "There is no God," he 
was not so great as Kepler, who said: "O God, I 
think thy thoughts after thee ! " and yet of both of 
them, and all whom they represent, God may well say, 
claiming them as his servants: "Shall the ax boast 
itself against him that heweth therewith ? or shall the 
saw magnify itself against him that shaketh it?" 

Let me here arrest this strain of remark by again 



OF FRANKLIN, INDIANA. 



61 



stating the truth that God in various ways has been 
working in the world, not only in the stupendous 
fabric of nature, but in the rise and fall of nations, in 
the advance of civilization and religion, in the better- 
ing of the conditions of mankind, in the discoveries 
of science, in the works of art, in the creation and 
use of capital, in the deeds of great men, in every 
department of thought, in one word, in all that has 
taken place in the world. If so in general, then is it 
so also with the period with which we are now deal- 
ing. God has been working his work in the world 
during the last fifty years. 

In the second place let me name and describe 
briefly several lines of thought which indicate how 
remarkable has been the progress made during the 
last fifty years. 

I have already shown you that it seems to me both 
philosophical and grateful to recognize God as in 
these several respects working in the world. In this 
review we will not say even in our hearts with the 
fool : " There is no God," but rather with true wisdom : 
"What hath God wrought!" 

My remarks will be grouped under four heads. 
I. The physical changes effected during this period. 
I shall mention those mainly which tend to make the 
earth a better place for man's residence, and man a 
fitter inhabitant of the earth. Among these changes 
we have this, that millions of acres of land have been 
reclaimed for man's use in that time. Not including 
Ohio, Indiana and Illinois, 50,000,000 of acres of 
land west of the Alleghenies are now plowed that 
fifty years ago were wild. 



62 



FIRST PRESBYTER! A.N CHURCH 



In the islands of the Pacific that have been civilized 
during that period vast areas have been subdued. The 
Malthusian theory of increasing population, and the 
means of sustaining them not increasing, is a great 
deal farther from realization to-day than it was fifty 
years ago. 

In this country, and no doubt in others also, vast 
tracts of marsh lands, and lands under water, have 
been reclaimed and built on. The values thus , cre- 
ated in the vicinity of Boston, New York, Baltimore, 
Philadelphia, New Orleans, and other cities, amount 
to hundreds of millions. 

Not fifty years ago the favorite skating park of 
New York was where Canal Street now is, and oppo- 
site the city, on what was either marsh land or land 
under water, are the depots, yards, freight houses, 
wharves and piers of four mammoth railroads, and 
these properties are worth millions. 

In this connection let me ask you to reflect on the 
vast revolution that in that time has taken place in 
farming implements. The plow, harrow, hay-fork, 
rake, scythe, cradle, flail, hoe, and a few more in- 
struments in use half a century ago were very rude. 
In the coming Centennial Exposition a most attrac- 
tive section could be made by gathering the rude 
utensils of the farm half a century ago, and placing 
them in contrast with the plows, mowers, reapers, 
drills, corn planters, threshers, and all the ingenious 
and varied instruments which belong to the farm now. 
Indeed in these respects, as also in the matter of en- 
riching and draining lands, the improvements of seed 



OF FRANKLIN, INDIANA. 



63 



and stock of all sorts, the changes have been very 
wonderful. 

The same might be shown of commerce and trade, 
and also manufactures, but I have not time to dwell 
on them to show the marvelous growth of such cen- 
ters of commerce as New York and Liverpool, and 
such centers of manufactures as Lowell and Glasgow. 
I may add in this connection that the growth of capi- 
tal in the world during that period has been enor- 
mous. Not to name the old money centers of 
Europe, what a vast growth of capital has there been 
in this country! During that period what vast for- 
tunes have been realized! 

Let me add a few facts from our census in regard 
to our own country, to show what has been done in 
this period. We have organized thirteen new States 
and nine Territories out of what was a wilderness fifty 
years ago, with only 89,000 people in it. There are 
now on that same area 10,000,000, who produce on 
the 50,000,000 of new acres they have plowed almost 
a billion of dollars annually. At that time Ohio, In- 
diana and Illinois had 783,000 people; to-day they 
have not less than 7,000,000. 

The growth of this sort has not been confined to 
the Western States. . For example, New York and 
Pennsylvania have grown in population from 2,372,- 
000 to not less than 8,000,000. But these facts are 
sufficient as indicating the vastness of this class of 
physical changes during this period in the world, but 
especially in our own country. 

Among the most powerful agencies effecting these 
and other great physical changes are the canal, the 



64 



FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH 



railroad and the magnetic telegraph. It is a most 
curious and instructive chapter in the growth of na- 
tions, and in the changes which produce growth in 
values, to trace the almost miraculous effect of the 
canals in the old world and in the new. 

Let me refer chiefly to our western country. Fifty 
years ago, in Central Ohio, thirty bushels of wheat 
barely sufficed to procure five dollars to pay a certain 
farmer's taxes! And at the same time farmers in the 
Wabash Valley actually hauled their wheat to Chi- 
cago, a load of it being worth enough when there to 
buy a barrel of salt! The Western States raised 
large amounts of grain which had very little value. 
The same was true of the coal and the minerals of 
the East and the West. 

The canal was like Aladdin's lamp, turning these 
bulks of produce into gold, by providing for them a 
way to market. The Ohio, the Wabash and Erie, 
and the Illinois and Michigan Canals accomplished 
miracles for the western country. 

The railroad was a mightier and more permanent 
agent, and the half century under review was in its 
fifth year, 1829, when George Stephenson placed 
" The Rocket," the prototype of all locomotive en- 
gines, on the rails, the beginning of a new and most 
astounding development that has changed the very 
world. Europe feels this power in every nerve. The 
force and value of it in Great Britain are incalculable. 
It is regenerating Egypt and India. It thunders 
along the valleys of the Nile, the Ganges and the 
Mississippi. It has tunneled the Hoosac, the Apen- 
nines and Bergen Hill. It has climbed over the Alle- 



OF FRANKLIN, INDIANA. 



65 



ghenies and the Rocky Mountains. It has bridged 
the Niagara, the St. Lawrence, the Mississippi, and, 
overcoming all obstacles, has spanned continents. 

In 1824 there was not a mile of railroad on the 
globe, now it is said there are 200,000 miles, built at 
a cost of four billions of dollars. Over 74,000 miles, 
or one-third of the whole, are in our country. And 
this change has all taken place within the period un- 
der review. The first rail was laid on this continent 
in 1830. If we analyze the 74,000 miles of railroad 
in the United States we stand confounded at the re- 
sults, since this mighty agency has reached every 
State, and almost every Territory, of the Union. The 
stage coach and canal packet are succeeded by the 
swift palace train, as the Conestoga wagon is by the 
freight train. It is astonishing what we can do in 
the way of travel through this agency. From Bos- 
ton to Washington was a journey of several days ; now 
it is a day's journey. Formerly, by coach and 
steamer, the traveler, in a period of from two to four 
weeks, could go from New York to New Orleans, and 
by a journey of several months to San Francisco. 
Now he can make the one journey in sixty hours and 
the other in a week. 

This agency affects all things which seek a market, 
so that the railroad has made the eggs of Ohio, In- 
diana and Illinois now bring more cash than their 
hogs did before the canal and railroad reached them. 
There is not a pound of cotton, or a bushel of grain 
or a fleece of wool, or a fat hog, or a fat ox, or a 
horse, or a foot of lumber, or a yard of cloth, or any 
article of any sort, produced in any part of the coun- 



66 



FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH 



try, whose value is not increased by the railroad. The 
largest increase is in real estate. It is impossible to 
exaggerate when we attempt to tell what the railroad 
has done for lands and other real estates, whether in 
city, in forest, or in mine, or in manufactory. If we 
could get a fair estimate of the value of real estate in 
this country in 1830 we should find that the railroad 
has probably added to that value all it cost to build it. 

It is wonderful to think of what this force, which 
belongs to the last half century, has accomplished 
for the world in very many respects, and without be- 
coming a partisan in the conflict now going on be- 
tween capital and labor over the railroads, let me in- 
voke your kindness not merely for the railroad, but 
for the men whose brain, enterprise and capital built 
it. For the business world to-day the railroad is the 
king power that moves it and makes its Susiness pos- 
sible. 

But there is a third agent, scarcely less potent, and 
in most respects far more wonderful — the telegraph. 
This, too, is the child of the last half century. Men 
recently dead remember the flaming advertisements 
in the Philadelphia and New Jersey newspapers of 
the " flying stage-wagon," which would take only two 
days to make the journey from New York to Phila- 
delphia, and the admiration excited by the passage of 
a letter from New York to Charleston in twenty days ! 
In 1845 one Thursday the great fire occured at Pitts- 
burg, and the next Sunday the news reached Phila- 
delphia! New York was separated by weeks from 
the capitals of the old world, also the new. < But now, 
through the genius of Faraday, Henry, Morse and 



OF FRANKLIN, INDIANA. 



67 



Field, distance is annihilated as related to the trans- 
mission of news. The wires stretch over continents 
and under oceans, so that one in a telegraph office 
seems to be in the whispering gallery of the world. 
San Francisco, New York, London, Calcutta and 
Canton are neighbors. And I may not dismiss this 
part of my subject without stating that on the Amer- 
ican continent there are 110,000 miles of telegraph 
lines, using 250,000 miles of wire; in other lands 
there are 250,000 miles of telegraphic lines, using 
600,000 miles of wire, a total in the world of 360,000 
miles of telegraphic lines, using 850,000 miles of wire. 
In this very year, 1874, there were sent over these 
lines 75,000,000 messages, at a cost of $40,000,000! 
There are one hundred and forty-six principal sub- 
marine lines, which have laid 70,000 miles of cable, 
of which 50,000 miles are now in operation. The 
capital of sixteen of these lines amounts to over 
$101,000,000! Truly, then, it was a divine thought, 
in harmony with facts, which led Miss Ellsworth to 
dictate my text as the first message over the wires : 
"What hath God wrought!" 

What was said of the railway may be said of the 
telegraph ; it has changed the very world itself. Bus- 
iness, social life, diplomacy, all things are changed by 
these agents of the period under consideration. 

I am interested in tracing the changes effected in 
the various trades and manufactures within fifty years. 
As an illustration, one of the most important busi- 
nesses in this country is the shoe business. Half a 
century ago machinery was scarcely thought of as 
likely to be applied here. In many country places 



68 



FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH 



the cobbler actually went from house to house to 
make the shoes of the neighborhood. In the Middle 
and New England States were communities of shoe- 
makers. There were thousands of little shops in 
which every pattern was cut by hand, every stitch 
made by hand and every peg driven by hand. Now 
machinery has assumed this work. It cuts the leather, 
fits and crimps it, sews and pegs it. In fact, the 
changes in this occupation alone are very wonderful, 
and they are a fair sample of changes in other forms 
of manufacture. 

And at this point let me simply call attention to the 
changes effected in all kinds of business by the divis- 
ion of labor. The professions have been revolution- 
ized by it since this period began. The lawyer of all 
work is succeeded by the lawyer who has a specialty, 
the general physician of the olden time by the sur- 
geon, the oculist and the dentist. The old-fashioned 
merchant who dealt in everything is succeeded by the 
merchant who deals in one thing. Thus it is with all 
the occupations of life. They have undergone re- 
markable modifications in these respects within the 
last half century. 

Fifty years ago all the trades that work wood did, 
as the shoemakers did, everything by human muscle. 
Compare an old saw mill with a Minneapolis gang 
saw mill, or a man sawing the lumber for house fur- 
nishing, or wagon making, or furniture, with the saws 
and planes of a modern mill, and you see at once 
how great the change in all these respects. We make 
mortises and tenons, we bore and we saw, we turn 
and we square everything made of wood, not by hu- 



OF FRANKLIN, INDIANA. 



69 



man muscle, but by machinery. It is indeed one of 
the most curious investigations we can institute to 
learn how many applications are now made of ma- 
chinery to the manufacture of all sorts of wooden 
and metal merchandise from a shoe peg to a house, 
from an ax handle to a gang plow, from a pin to a 
locomotive. One can not touch a door, a window 
sash, a shoe, a plow, or any other useful article, with- 
out knowing that his house, his hat, his coat, his 
everything has been made by machinery which was 
not thought of fifty years ago. 

New businesses have sprung up and grown to 
enormous magnitude within that period. For in- 
stance, shops for making and repairing cars in 1870 
produced for market $31,000,000, and for railroad re- 
pairing $27,500,000 ! And to this we must add the 
capital and labor, jointly producing the almost incon- 
ceivable amounts of railroad iron, which in this and 
other counties are on the 200,000 miles of railway, 
and we see at once what has been done in this direc- 
tion that was scarcely begun fifty years ago. It may 
be said, without exaggeration, that the great manu- 
facturing towns and cities of this country have been 
founded, or at least attained their greatness, during 
this period. Lowell, Lawrence, Fall River, Newark, 
Pittsburg, Cincinnati, Chicago, and many such busy 
manufacturing places belong to this half century. 
The changes have been so vast and the results so 
great in the new manufactures alone, such as railway 
iron, locomotives, railway cars, sewing machines, 
agricultural machinery, and many other kinds of new 

businesses, that they seem like some wonder of a 
7 



70 



FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH 



fairy-tale rather than a sober reality, whose magnitude 
is too great for us to comprehend. 

With a like result shall we be met if we remember 
that even inland steamers belong principally to this 
period, whilst all the wonders of the ocean steamers 
belong exclusively to it. One is both amused and 
amazed to note the much lauded but very cold fire- 
places of fifty years ago and compare them with the 
beautiful and comfortable stoves of our own day. The 
words " cooking stove " belong to the last half cen- 
tury, and they tell of amazing progress. Fifty years 
ago only the rich could purchase the coveted portrait 
and work of art, but now photography ministers both 
to the taste and affection of the rich and the poor. 
Within the last fifty years the vulcanization of india- 
rubber has added very greatly to the health and comfort 
of the human family, and that in a great many ways. 
It is a very wonderful agent in the world of to-day. 
To how many uses do we apply it? 

To the same period belongs another famous dis- 
covery, which has brought relief to the multitudes of 
unfortunate people in the home, the hospital, and on 
battle-field, who have found the surgeon's knife the 
only means of escaping death. 

Who can measure the value of the discovery of 
chloroform, the beautiful angel of the hospital and 
surgeon's table ? 

How much of human welfare and happiness depend 
on the means of producing light? Fifty years ago 
the tallow candle and the oil lamp shed light on the 
house-wife in her kitchen, the lady in her parlor, the 
mechanic in his shop, and student at his books. 



OF FRANKLIN, INDIANA. 



71 



With very little exception, the streets of the largest 
cities were then lighted with oil lamps, or were not 
lighted at all. But since the period began which is 
now under review, we may say in the words of Job : 
"The rock pours us out rivers of oil," and the mines 
of darkness furnish us coal which produces the most 
beautiful illuminating gas, now shedding light on 
countless homes, places of business and cities where 
men dwell. 

Fifty years ago men, and even women, reaped with 
the sickle the harvest fields of the earth and mowed 
its meadows. How great a labor this was some of us 
remember. But thousands of mowing and reaping 
machines now transfer this immense labor from human 
to brute muscles. The song of the shirt: "Stitch! 
stitch ! stitch ! " was a very tragical fact in the lives 
of millions of men and women fifty years ago, but 
to-day millions of sewing machines have relieved the 
aching human fingers by compelling fingers of steel 
to do their work. 

Fifty years ago most of the printing was done by 
the cruel hand press ; to-day steam does the press- 
work. 

Fifty years ago there were a few newspapers in this 
country, and there was only one religious weekly, b«t 
to-day our religious weeklies are numbered by the 
hundred, and our political and other newspapers by 
the thousand, and their issues by the million. In a 
word, if we compare our own country and the civil- 
ized nations of the old world as they are to-day with 
what they were half a century ago, these changes of 
a physical nature being almost miraculous, we may 



72 



FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH 



well recognize the presence of a Higher Power, and 
exclaim: "What hath God wrought!" 

II. Let us consider the last half century's progress 
in educational and eleemosynary institutions. There 
has been a great advance in the means of technical 
education in the old world, as in other departments. 
Popular education is gaining ground on the other 
side of the seas. Prussia has been a stern teacher of 
Europe, and such nations as France are learning the 
lesson. Education in the Sandwich Islands and other. 
Pacific groups has made great progress. 

The old world is waking up to know how import- 
ant and obligatory the work of education is, and light 
is dawning on the masses. Whilst the Free Public 
School of this country dates back about two centu- 
ries, yet especially, outside of New England, this 
great American idea has received its chief develop- 
ment since 1824. In 1870 the Public Schools num- 
bered 125,000, with 183,000 teachers and 6,228,000 
pupils. Their cost was $64,000,000. The higher in- 
stitutions irt 1870 numbered 16,545, with 37,700 
teachers and 981,000 pupils. They cost that year 
$30,675,000. In both the Public and the Higher 
Schools the growth in fifty years was from almost 
nothing. v 

The appalling illiteracy does not diminish the 
grand facts just named. Were we to name our col- 
leges and universities, and were we able to name the 
sums bestowed by public and private munificence in 
the last fifty years, they would constitute an item of 
great splendor. Not stopping to name what has been 
done for the eastern colleges by benevolent men, I 



OF FRANKLIN, INDIANA. 



73 



may add that, with small exception, all the higher 
institutions of learning west of the Alleghenies have 
been planted and have become what they are during 
this period. Indeed, the work for education in that 
time has been one of almost inconceivable grandeur. 

ylt is said that the asylum is the child of Christianity. 
The Romans had camps, the Greeks had groves, the 
civilizations of the old world had temples and fanes, 
but they had no asylum, no hospital, no retreat for the 
unfortunate. 

A Christian clergyman first' undertook to loose the 
tongue of the deaf; another devised the sign language 
for them, and another started the magnificent charities 
which are now the glory of our country. The Church 
of Christ is the mother of asylums, and I need not 
name the great Christian men — clerical and lay — who 
have conducted these enterprises to their present glory. 

The work of building asylums for the deaf, the blind, 
the sick and other sufferers, has received its chief im- 
pulse within fifty years in the old world. All the 
twenty-eight blind asylums in the country, and thirty- 
two of the thirty-six deaf and dumb asylums have 
been built in that period. 

If to these we add the beautiful charities which 
bring relief to the feeble-minded, orphans, widows, 
outcasts, vagrant children,, paupers, charities unm- 
bered by the hundreds, and which have, for the most 
part, been the outgrowth of benevolence since 1824, 
we shall begin to see the great work of God in our 
world, bringing strength to the feeble and relief to 
the suffering. If thus we compare 1824 with 1874 
in the several respects named as pertaining to educa- 



74 



FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH 



tion and eleemosynary institutions ; if we compare the 
public schools, the higher institutions, the professional 
schools, the asylums, hospitals and other institutions 
for the unfortunate as they now present themselves to 
us with the condition of things in these respects, fifty 
years ago, we may well exclaim with the historian of 
the Reformation, " God is in this history,": — and with 
Balaam— as he beheld the encampments of Israel spread 
out in such goodly array on the plains over which he 
was looking, " What hath God wrought ! " 

In the third place let me refer to the vast progress 
made in religious and moral enterprises during the 
last half century. 

During that period the Sacred Scriptures have been 
translated into one hundred and fifty languages and 
dialects which, added to the fifty into which they were 
previously translated, bring the vernacular Bible into 
the tongues spoken by most of the human family. 

The various Christian Churches have had an im- 
mense growth within fifty years. The Presbyterians 
in 1824 had in the whole country fewer ministers, 
churches and communicants than we now have in the 
States and Territories, which fifty years ago were a 
wilderness; and they have a score of single churches, 
each of which contains more members than all the 
Presbyterian Churches of Indiana and Illinois had 
fifty years ago. At that time we had 1,080 ministers, 
1,772 churches, and 169,000 communicants. Now we 
have 4,597 ministers, 4,946 churches, and 495,634 
communicants. That year our whole Church raised 
$37,590 for benevolent purposes. Last year we raised 
two and a half millions. 



OP FRANKLIN, INDIANA. 



75 



Numerically more wonderful is the growth of the 
Baptists who have quadrupled their strength and 
numbers. They report 2,000,000 communicants, and 
represent a population of some 8,000,000. This in- 
cludes all the denominations which practice immersion. 

The Methodist Church, or, rather the Methodist 
Churches, which spring from the Church founded by 
the Wesleys, have in that time made a vast growth. 
The M. E. Church North, alone, has of all grades 
23,551 preachers, with 1,563,000 members. Including 
the M. E. Church South, the African M. E. Church 
and the Protestant Methodist, there are not less than 
3,000,000 Methodist communicants now in this coun- 
try at least, a fourfold increase within fifty years. 

There has been a similar growth of the congrega- 
tional, Episcopal and other Churches during the same 
period. I need hardly add that in this country the 
growth of the Roman Catholic Church has also been 
very rapid within fifty years. 

The Sunday-school work was organized by the 
formation of the American Sunday-school Union, in 
1824, and such has been its expansion since that time, 
that there are not less than 7,000,000 scholars in the 
Protestant Sunday-schools of this country. 

The temperance reformation belongs to this half 
century. Forty-eight years ago Dr. Beecher flamed 
his immortal six sermons on intemperance in the 
world. It is said that temperance has done no good ; 
but those who assert this have not studied the history 
of society fifty years ago. All classes then drank — 
men and women, judges, lawyers, merchants, mechan- 
ics, farmers, teachers, preachers. People drank in hot 



76 



FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH 



weather and in cold, at social gatherings and at frolics, 
in the shop and in the field, on Sundays and on other 
days, when they were sick and when they were well, 
at the polls and at funerals. Dram drinking was the 
universal custom, and the effects were most awful in 
kind and in amount The Christian Church was in- 
volved in the custom to an awful degree, as is 
shown by the records of our own and other Churches. 
As no arithmetic can compute the -evils of intemper- 
ence in 1824, so it can not compute the numbers of 
drunkards rescued by this instrumentality, the bless- 
ing conferred on families, on communities and on 
churches. We need not be blind to the tremendous 
evil as it now exists, nor should we be ungrateful that 
to-day millions are temperate in consequence of this 
reformation which began in 1826. 

The changes in the relations of the different Churches 
have been great. The early half of this period was 
marked by unfraternal strife, the latter half by Christian 
fellowship, vying with holy strife to see which shall 
do most for man -and for God. 

It has been the grandest era of Christian missions 
in all parts of the earth, as also of the most astonish- 
ing revivals in this country, Great Britain, Ireland, 
the islands of the Pacific, Persia, Turkey, Southern 
Asia, and other parts of the world. 

I do not doubt that the converts in the revivals of 
the last fifty years number millions. 

Remember, also, that during the same period the 
Second Reformation has taken place in Germany, 
Switzerland and France ; that the Free Church of 
Scotland made its sublime exodus from the old Scotch 



OF FRANKLIN, INDIANA. 



77 



Kirk ; that the Irish Church has been disestablished, 
and that John Bright now predicts the disestablishment 
of the English Church ; that all legal barriers to the 
circulation of the vernacular Scriptures in Roman 
Catholic and Mohammedan countries have been 
thrown down, and that now the whole world is open 
to Christian labor. These and other facts show what 
a wonderful half century has this been for the world 
during which this church has existed. And when 
we take such a glance over the moral and religious 
movements of this period, well may we raise our 
hands in grateful astonishment as we exclaim, " What 
hath God wrought!" 

In the fourth place I ask you to note the political 
and personal changes which have occurred during 
the last fifty years. 

. In a great many respects — the abolition of the 
corn laws, protective tariff, the disabilities of Cath- 
olics and Jews, the rotten boroughs ; also the dises- 
tablishment of the Irish Church, the serious assaults 
on the English Church, the laws of inheritance and 
freeholds, and, in many other respects, the England 
of fifty years ago was very different from the En- 
gland of to-day. The changes are in the right direc- 
tion. 

France within this period has dethroned Charles X., 
Louis Philippe, and Napoleon III., and has been re- 
peatedly shaken with revolution. The France of 1824 
was yet " the great France" that overran Europe under 
Napoleon. The France of to-day yet feels the hu- 
miliation which Prussia has inflicted. The boundaries 

of the French Empire have been narrowed, and its 
8 



78 



FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH 



conqueror has suddenly become the first power and 
dictator of Europe. What changes in France ! What 
changes in Prussia ! And in these changes Catholic 
Austria has also been forced to drink a bitter cup at 
the hand of Prussia. French and Austrian bayonets 
sustained the Pope on his throne as a temporal ruler, 
and resisted the unification of Italy. But now these 
intruders and usurpers are broken by a common foe. 
The lesson is one to think of! France and Austria 
humbled, the Pope's throne as a temporal prince lev- 
eled, Prussia the great empire and Italy one nation ! 
It looks as if God had been in the business. How 
Russia also has grown ! How sublime the enfranchise- 
ment of her serfs, how she clasps in her arms the 
great zone of the North on two continents, how stead- 
ily she reaches out her hands for the coveted Bos- 
phorus, how great she has grown ! 

Spain has found freedom of some sort, but is in 
spasms, the issue of which we can not predict. The 
land of Ferdinand and Isabella, of haughty chieftain 
and bloody bigot, what a sight is Spain to-day ! But 
we may hope for the best. 

Need I refer to the changes in China, Japan, South- 
ern India, Brazil, and other parts of the world, to 
convince you that the last half century has witnessed 
very remarkable political changes among the nations? 
And these changes have been mainly beneficent. 

I have already mentioned some of the changes 
which have taken place in this country both in terri- 
tory and population. We have three-fourths as many 
foreigners now as we had whites in 1824. Every 
fourth white male adult in this country is a foreigner. 



OF FRANKLIN, INDIANA. 



79 



How grave are the interests associated with this state- 
ment I need not stop to unfold. 

But the greatest political changes in this country- 
have been effected in another direction Fifty years 
ago coffles of slaves and slave marts were common 
sights even in the District of Columbia. In 1824 the 
Quaker, Benjamin Lundy, removed to Baltimore, and 
since he began the war on American slavery, what 
vast moral, social and political revolutions have taken 
place ! What giants have fought in this war, defend- 
ing or assaulting this institution ! Hayne and Web- 
ster, Calhoun and Clay, Davis and Seward, Marshall 
and John Quincy Adams, Toombs and Chase. I 
name not the editors, the lecturers, the preachers, who 
also contended. They were great men and fought 
stoutly over this political and moral heresy. Many 
of them are dead; and at last, in 1865, the tremendous 
war which had been evoked to settle it was concluded. 
How small the beginning, the Quaker Lundy teach- 
ing in a quiet way Christ's law on slavery, and at last 
the nation divided into two vast military camps to 
settle the question by arms. And from the moment 
the first shot was fired from Sumter, April 12, 1861, 
to the surrender of Lee, April 9, 1865, what heroism, 
what suffering, what battles, what dying among those 
who defended the Union ! Oh, how many graves were 
dug, how many lives went out, how many hearts were 
broken ! All this has rendered possible such eulogy 
as this, which scares us with its numerical and ghastly 
reckoning, whilst it thrills us with its pathos. 



80 



FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH 



" Four hundred thousand men, 

The young, the brave, the true, 
In tangled wood and mountain glen, 
On battle-field and prison pen, 
Lie dead for me and you, 
For me and you: 
Four hundred thousand of the brave 
Have made our ransomed soil their grave, 
Good friend, for me and you ! 

" On many a battle plain 

Their ready swords they drew, 
And poured their life blood like the rain, 
A home, a heritage, to gain, 

To gain for me and you : 
From western plain to ocean tide, 
Are stretched the graves of those who died ! 

" A debt we ne'er can pay 
To them is justly due; 
But to the nation's latest day 
Our children's children still shall say, 

They died for me and you : 
Four hundred thousand of the brave 
Have made this ransomed soil their grave!" 

The evil was one of fearful magnitude and malignancy. 
It had sent its roots into every part of society. It 
reached social businesses and political relations and 
even our religious life. It is not cured yet, nor will 
it be this year or the next. If it be cured by the end 
of the next fifty years, we shall have reason for thanks- 
giving; but he must be very blind who does not note 
with amazement what has been done since, in 1824, 
Lundy, the abolitionist, removed to Baltimore. 

Here and elsewhere the drift is toward human ele- 
vation. God is breaking the chains of man and mak- 
ing him a freeman. The work accomplished in this 



OF FRANKLIN, INDIANA. 



81 



respect within fifty years is very great. If we except 
Brazil and Spain, all Christian nations have abolished 
human slavery. Clarkson and Wilberforce come into 
this half century, and saw with their own eyes the Brit- 
ish West Indies delivered from the curse, and the pre- 
monitions of the end of slavery here and throughout 
the world; so that we may justly call the last half 
century the grandest period of history for the progress 
of liberty. 

Death is the monarch of change among men. Since 
the last half century began this power has vacated 
every throne in Europe at least once, and has cut 
down fourteen men who had exercised the functions 
of the President of these United States. On the fourth 
of July, 1826, Adams and Jefferson died, and on the 
fourteenth of April, 1865, Abraham Lincoln. Be- 
tween these extremes were Madison, Monroe, Jack- 
son, John Quincy Adams, Van Buren, Harrison, 
Tyler, Polk, Taylor, Fillmore and Buchanan. 

The leaders of the world in all its spheres fifty 
years ago are dead — soldiers, inventors, scientists, 
authors, orators, capitalists, rulers. It would be 
tedious to name only a small part of the names of the 
great dead of the last half century. Let these suf- 
fice: Wellington, Metternich, Palmerston, Webster, 
Clay, Silas Wright, Calhoun, Winfield Scott, John 
Marshall, Thomas Chalmers, Lyman Beecher, Archi- 
bald Alexander, William Wirt, Davy, Humboldt, 
Faraday, Morse, and oh, how many more ! Aye, if 
we may come from these exalted heights where the 
great dwell to the lower level of common life, we find 
that since the pioneers smote the first tree in Frank- 



82 



FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH 



lin, twice a thousand million of human beings have 
died. In all the solemn mysteries of life and death, 
how much have mankind experienced in that time! 
Infants have wailed and smiled, the young have run 
without weariness and have looked to the future with 
hope, manhood has loved and toiled, old age has 
looked wistfully back to the past and shrinkingly for- 
ward to the future, and yet amid the countless varie- 
ties of human experience, one fact has been. frowning 
on the world and scaring it — I mean Death ! 

Well may we, on such an anniversary, say of the 
"stream of time," which has carried away almost two 
generations of our fellow-creatures, with all apper- 
taining to them, since the fathers began their work 
here: 

11 It is a widespread stream 
And every valley fills ; 
It covers the plains, 
And the high domains — 
Of the everlasting hills. 

"It is a ceaseless stream, 
Forever flowing fast ; 
Like a solemn tide, 
To the ocean wide, 
Of the far unfathomed past. 

"It is a mighty stream, 
Resistless in its sway 

To the loftiest things, 

The strongest kings 
It carries with ease away." 

I have detained you a great while with this re- 
hearsal, and yet I trust it may not be in vain. The 
last half century has been a very remarkable period 
in the history of God's work in the world. 



OF FRANKLIN, INDIANA. 



83 



The physical, political, social and moral changes 
wrought under God's superintending providence have 
been stupendous. What vast progress has science 
made! how almost miraculous the transformations of 
inert matter into agencies for human welfare and de- 
velopment ! how full of hope the vast changes wrought 
in the social and civil and religious conditions of 
races and nations. For ages the race has been groan- 
ing and travailing in pain, under tyrannies of all kinds. 
Now freedom is shaking down these tyrannies. Ethi- 
opia for ages has been stretching forth her hands to 
God, and is now receiving the answer in the model 
Republic of Liberia, the apostolic mission of Albert 
Bushnell on the Gaboon, and the peerless work of 
Dr. Livingstone, in opening to the gaze of the world 
the interior of Africa. Clarkson, Wilberforce, Lundy, 
Garrison, Lincoln, have been God's ambassadors to 
Ethiopia. Romanism, Protestantism, and Christian- 
ity itself are on trial at the bar of truth. I am glad 
of it. The furnace is not yet built that can hurt pure 
gold, and we may thank the skeptics of the labora- 
tory, the library and the observatory, for putting our 
religion, our Bible, and even our Christ into the 
crucible to determine their merits. The astronomers 
who have gone half way around the world to deter- 
mine the facts of the transit of Venus will not hurt 
Venus, nor put truth out of joint. No more will the 
assaults on religion. If any so-called religion goes 
down in that trial, let it go down; but not a jot, or a 
tittle of real Christian truth shall perish. And so for 
fifty years these learned skeptics have been forced to 
demonstrate that "the words of the Lord are pure 



84 



FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH 



words ; as silver tried in a furnace of earth purified 
seven times." 

The race is making vast progress toward true lib- 
erty in government, science, truth and happiness. I 
say this in full view of the tremendous hold sin has 
on mankind. The world is far better off, and stronger 
and more religious than it was fifty years ago. 

We sometimes say in our blind unbelief, that "if 
God works at all he works slow ! " but who can re- 
view the astonishingly vast and beneficent changes 
wrought in the world during this period without re- 
pelling the calumny that God is not wise, strong and 
good enough to push all the forces of his universe 
forward in the line of progress for the good of a race 
for whose salvation he gave his Son to die? 

We have been reviewing the work done in the 
world, and especially in our own country, the last 
fifty years. It seems to me that we can have but one 
opinion, that the world in many respects has made 
very astonishing progress. 

We stand on the threshold of another half cen- 
tury. When that shall have been accomplished, the 
review of its progress must be made by some other 
chronicler, and before an audience made up of other 
persons. It is possible that some boy who does not 
now know his alphabet shall stand in my place, but 
his hearers shall be made up chiefly of those who are 
now young or not yet born. Few of us shall be here 
when fifty years have passed away. And yet, if we 
desire the reviewer of that period to have the materi- 
als for a pleasing sketch of God's work in the world, 
we must ourselves so discharge the duties we owe the 



OF FRANKLIN, INDIANA. 



85 



world and God, as that we can commit our trust to 
our successors in a better condition than we received 
it from our fathers. If, in all fidelity to God and 
to man, we live and work, the waste places of the 
world shall so blossom, the rough places shall so 
grow smooth, and the dark places grow so light; the 
world shall so improve in all its physical conditions, 
and the race so mount up to a higher manhood, that 
the chronicler of the next fifty years shall be able to 
say as I now say, in wonder and hopefulness : " What 
hath God wrought ! " , 

After the concluding prayer the congregation sang 
the hymn : 

Wake the song of jubilee, 
Let it echo o'er the sea ! 
Now is come the promised hour 5 
Jesus reigns with glorious power ! 

All ye nations, join and sing, 
Praise your Savior, praise your King j 
Let it sound from shore to shore — 
"Jesus reigns forevermore!" 

Hark! the desert lands rejoice j 
And the islands join their voice 5 
Joy ! the whole creation sings, — 
"Jesus is the King of kings !" 



The services were closed with the benediction. 



Of course the children could not be left out in so 
important an event as the semi-centennial of the 
church; hence arrangements had been made for a 
children's meeting, to be held at three o'clock P. M. 
of the Sabbath. 

The other Sabbath-schools of the city had been in 
vited. At the appointed hour the audience-room of 
the church was filled with the young people and chil- 
dren of the congregation, the invited Sabbath-schools 
and a goodly company of older people, who are al- 
ways delighted to be numbered with the children. 

Mr. Geo. W. Voris, the Superintendent of the Sab- 
bath-school, took charge of the music, Mrs. Julia 
Voris presiding at the organ. 



(86) 



Children's Meeting 

SABBATH AFTERNOON. 



ADDRESSES ZB3T 

REV. R. D. MORRIS, D. D., 

REV. ALEX. PARKER, 

REV. A. B. MOREY, 

AND THE PASTOR. 



Rev. Dr. Morris, of Oxford Female College, Ohio, 
addressed the children as follows : 

Your fathers and you are celebrating to-day the 
fiftieth anniversary of the founding of this church 
and Sabbath-school here in the wilderness. But these 
fathers' fathers made another settlement, many years 
ago, on the Atlantic coast. Now, children, what 
brought your forefathers to America, to settle in the 
New World, among the woods and the Indians ? You 
ought to know about this. When your fathers came 
here to Indiana they came because the land was rich 
and good. They knew, by and by, they could cut 
down the trees, and build houses, and plant the fields, 
and have plenty to live on. They had religion and 
liberty, and they knew they would have prosperity. 
But when, more than two hundred years ago, our 
forefathers left their old homes in Europe to sail over 
the ocean, they were searching for freedom to wor- 
ship God. That is what brought them to America 
first of all. Don't forget that, children. It was not 
rich land and beautiful countries. It was not great 
towns, and cities, and ships, and much wealth. No, 
children. God has given our land and nation abund- 
ance of these things, but our forefathers did not come 
to America for this. God had raised up Luther, and 
Calvin, and Knox. They had translated the Bible 
into the language of the people, and had preached 

(89) 



90 



FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH 



the gospel of Christ with wonderful power. Multi- 
tudes were converted and became Protestants against 
the corrupt and tyrannical Church of Rome. But 
this anti-Christian Church harassed and tormented 
them. She burnt the Bible and wasted and burnt 
the Protestants wherever she had the power. Our 
fathers' fathers sometimes resisted them unto blood. 
Years of slaughter and desolation often followed. 
Once in a while they would triumph gloriously and 
then they would have peace and prosperity for years. 
But Rome branded our forefathers as "heretics," and 
made it a maxim never to keep faith with heretics. 
They broke their covenants, revoked their edicts, and 
robbed, and plundered, and murdered the Protestants 
with remorseless fury. Our forefathers prayed for 
some land of refuge, and the Lord of Hosts pointed 
them to America, just discovered and ready for them. 
And here they came, children, to found a free Church 
and a free State. The Lord has been to them a pil- 
lar of cloud by day, and a pillar of fire by night. They 
have gone on and on, from the Atlantic to the Pacific. 
Never, in the annals of time, has a nation been more 
gloriously blessed of God Almighty. Oh, children, 
you should study the history of these mighty strug- 
gles against Rome, and the amazing triumphs that 
have followed. You are descended from the heroic 
men who secured these priceless blessings, and their 
vast inheritance is yours. You must cherish it and 
keep it. You have your churches and Sabbath- 
schools, and civil liberties, and you must love them 
and maintain them at all hazards. And now, chil- 
dren, how are you to treat the children of those who 



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91 



so cruelly persecuted and slaughtered your fathers; 
for they have heard of this glorious land, its liberties, 
its riches and its greatness? Many have come to 
America to escape the old tyranny at home; but 
many are crowding to our homes to regain this land 
for the Pope of Rome, and to renew on these peace- 
ful shores the fearful scenes of carnage and blood of 
former times. The children of these people are 
taught to despise your Bible and your religion, and 
to call you heretics. They abuse your common 
schools, and have nothing in common with our peo- 
ple but the ballot-box, and even that they would not 
allow if they could help it. But, children, be careful 
how you treat these children. Don't feel vexed and 
angry at them ; don't abuse them, and when you see 
them on the street, don't feel inclined to draw back 
and strike them between the eyes. This will never 
do, dear children. This would be very wicked. We 
must show them a better spirit — a better example. 
We must show them the gospel of Christ. This is a 
mighty power, children, among children as well as 
grown people. You must try to get these children 
to read the Bible and come with you to the Sabbath- 
school. We must seek the conversion of all these 
children and grown people. They can be converted 
just like other people, if we only go about it aright; 
be assured of that. Just let me tell you a story, chil- 
dren, to illustrate how this may be done. 

Some years ago, before I came to Ohio, I was pas- 
tor of the old Presbyterian Church near Philadelphia, 
where Washington took the Hessians, after their cap- 
ture over at Trenton, near by. One Sabbath morn- 



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FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH 



ing, just before church-time, an Irishman came to my 
house and introduced himself and his son Patrick. 
He wanted a place for his boy among the farmers, 
where he could be brought up right and taught to 
work. I soon saw he was a Roman and needed in- 
struction for himself as well as his boy. " Well, my 
friend," said I, " it is now time to go to church, so 
just come along, and when it is over we can have 
some dinner and talk about little Pat." 

" Yis, yis, yer riverence," he responded, "we'll go." 
And so on we went until we came to the gate of the 
stone wall around the old stone church. I saw Pat 
hung back and that his father was earnestly chiding 
him. But the father came on and up to the minister's 
pew I took him. After the services were over we 
found little Pat still outside. During the dinner I ' 
found out the reason of Pat's refusal to enter the 
church. He said " it was wicked to go inside of a 
heretical meeting-house," and so the poor fellow 
would not go in. This showed that Pat had some 
conscience, but that it sadly needed divine illumina- 
tion. Promising the father to take good care of his 
boy, and with the present of a Bible from the Amer- 
ican Bible Society, he was let go to his home some 
miles distant. Pat was persuaded to go to a school- 
house meeting that afternoon, and was more comfort- 
able. After worship that evening Pat was taken to 
bed. As the little fellow was getting ready for sleep 
I saw a black ribbon around his neck, with a piece of 
black leather suspended, about as large as an old- 
fashioned half dollar. 



OF FRANKLIN, INDIANA. 



93 



" Why, what is that around your neck, Patrick ? " I 
inquired. 

"An' it's a char-rum, zur." 

"A what? " I replied. 

"A char-rum, zur." 

"And what is that for?" I asked. 

" To kape me from baing burrund and der-rownd, 
zur." 

"And where did you get that?" 

"An' shure, zur, didn't my mither buy it from the 
praste in Ireland, and give him two shillin' for it?" 

"And that's a ' char- rum,' Patrick, 'to kape you from 
baing burrund and der rownd,' is it?" 

" Yis, zur, an' it is, zur." 

Just then it occurred to me to try the power of 
Patrick's " char-rum." Having the lamp in my right 
hand, I took one of Patrick's hands in my left, and 
then touched the lamp under that wrist. A sudden 
jerk released Patrick's hand from my hold. "Why, 
what's the matter, Pat?" 

"An' ye burrund me, zur," he exclaimed. 

"Burrund me?" I responded. 

"Yis," he said. 

"Why, Pat, I thought you had a ' char-rum' from 
the praste in Ireland to kape you from baing burrund 
and der-rownd? " 

Poor Pat fixed a look of searching scrutiny on me, 
as much as to say : "Ah, you heretic minister, I 
would not go into your church this morning, but for 
all that you have burrund and bate me, praste and 
all ! Have I been tricked and swindled in my relig- 
ion?" The poor fellow was so disconcerted that he 



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was about to forget his prayers even to the Virgin 
Mary. He was reminded that he ought always to 
offer his prayers to the good Lord, both on retiring 
at night and rising in the morning; that God would 
be his Father, the Lord Jesus his Savior, and the 
Holy Spirit his Sanctifier. And so he slept. The 
next day little Pat was safely lodged with a good 
farmer and went on with his work. By and by he 
was lost sight of; but after five or six years I was 
told a young man wanted to see me. As I was "not 
very well he was sent up to my room. 

"And good-morning, Mr. Morris. 

"Good-morning, my young friend," I responded. 

"And you don't seem to know me, sir?" 

"No, my young friend, I do not remember you." 

"And have you forgotten Patrick Larfey?" 

"What! little Pat Larfey, the boy with the 'char- 
rum?" 

" Yes, sir, the very same." 

" Well, well, Patrick, I am glad to see you. And 
where do you live nowadays, and what are you 
doing ? " 

" Oh," he answered " down between this and Phil- 
adelphia ; and we don't believe in priests and charms 
any more at all, at all — not a bit of it. And I came 
to see you and thank you, and to tell you how we go 
to the Sabbath-school and the church, at the old Ab- 
ington Church, where Dr. Steel preaches. We read 
our Bible now and want to be Protestants." 

You may be assured, children, I was very glad to 
see Patrick, for he was a good-looking young man, 
and gave good hopes of being of some account in 



OF FRANKLIN, INDIANA. 



95 



the world. He had indeed been charmed into a bet- 
ter life, but it was not by Popery and its mummeries, 
but the Bible, and the Sabbath-school, and the Church 
of Christ. Kind Christian treatment had reached the 
hearts of these poor Irish people, and they had heart- 
ily responded to this gospel instruction. And so, 
dear children, people will often do the world over, if 
we only treat them in the spirit of love and faithful- 
ness. A number of such cases have fallen under my 
own observation. A young man out here in Indiana, 
and now a successful dentist in one of your towns, 
is another illustration. A few years after little Pat- 
rick came to my house, he also came for assistance. 
He had been converted to God among the Methodists, 
but his parents were bitter and intolerant Irish Ro- 
manists. They threatened to kill him, and his own 
mother drove him from home. But I took him and 
gave him a home, and sent him to school. By and 
by he became a colporteur for our Board of Publi- 
cation, and scattered many good books over the South 
before the war. Then some became afraid of him, 
and persecuted him, so that he escaped, and came 
North to me in Ohio. He was a soldier in the war 
that followed, and again revisited many of the old 
grounds and the people where he had before labored 
as a missionary. So the Lord took care of him, and 
he is to-day a sound Protestant and a useful man. 
Then in the Female College where I am, we have two 
French and German professors, able and successful 
men, who were Romans, and who were converted to 
the gospel in that Institution. The pictures they give 
of Roman tyranny and superstition are shocking 



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FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH 



enough. But they are now good Presbyterians and 
stanch Protestants. Then, also, the late editor of 
our Oxford newspaper was an Irish Roman, and a stu- 
dent for the priesthood. He, too, was in the army, 
and became converted, and is now a teacher and a 
local preacher in the Methodist Church. And then, 
too, we have another case in our town. A young 
Brazilian student in the university was lately baptized, 
and joined our Church. The Emperor sent him to 
the United States to be educated, and he lately told 
me the first thing that struck him in this country was 
the teaching of the Bible and the religion of the peo- 
ple. He said the doctrines of the Bible were so dif- 
ferent from Romanism, and from the ignorance and 
superstition of his country. He said he and his father 
used to paint and prepare images of the Virgin Mary 
and the saints for the people to worship, and he saw, 
on reading the Bible, that this was nothing but idola- 
try. He soon became a thorough Protestant, and, 
while he is a remarkably intelligent young man, he is 
so gentle and so good. The love of Christ overflows 
in his heart. He will go back to his own land a great 
blessing, and will doubtless help on that great relig- 
ious reformation that is now moving over that vast 
Empire. 

But, children, time would fail me to tell you of the 
wonderful things the Lord is doing where the people 
are faithful to their opportunities. See to it that you 
love the Lord Jesus, and do all you can to win souls 
for Christ. Love your Christian homes dearly. Love 
your Sabbath-school and your Church. You can 
never repay your diligent and faithful teachers and 



OF FRANKLIN, INDIANA. 



97 



preachers. Respond joyfully to their messages of 
grace, and seek earnestly to become the children of 
God unto everlasting life. 

The next speaker introduced was Rev. Alex. Parker, 
pastor of the Presbyterian Church at Columbus. Mr. 
Parker said : 

The question has come into my mind if any of these 
children that are here to-day should live fifty years from 
this time and join in celebrating the hundredth anni- 
versary of this church, what kind of men and women 
will they be ? And that will depend very much upon 
the answer to the question, What kind of boys and 
girls are you ? Dr. Morris has just been telling you 
of the little boy who wanted a " charm to ' kape' him 
from being hurt by evil spirits." You may all have 
something better than a "charm." "The fear of the 
Lord is the beginning of wisdom; a good understand- 
ing have all they that do his commandments." And 
the answer to the question, " What kind of men and 
women will you be, should you live to see the hun- 
dredth anniversary of this church?" depends upon 
whether you have this " fear of the Lord." Sometimes 
when speeches are made to children, it is the custom 
to tell them that " some of them will be lawyers, and 
some doctors; possibly some governors, and may be 
the future President of the United States is among 
you." Now I don't care so much whether any of you 
get to be any of these things that the world calls great 
or not. The men whom the world calls great are not 
always the ones whom God calls great. Over yonder 
among the hills in Ohio where I lived when a boy, 



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FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH 



there were two other boys grew up and left home at 
nearly the same time. One of them went to West Point 
to study military science. For some years after he 
left the" school the world heard but little of him. But 
when the war broke out he became a colonel, then a 
general, and to-day he is the President of the United 
States. 

The other went to college ; then to the Theological 
Seminary, at Cincinnati. His heart became interested 
in the subject of Foreign Missions. He consecrated 
his life to that work. He started for Africa to tell the 
people there of Jesus. Just after he reached the coast 
of Africa he took the fever and died. A good many 
people are ready to say such a life is wasted. But, 
though President Grant has done a good work for his 
country, I believe that John M. Campbell, called away 
thus just as he entered on this work, has done more 
for the world than President Grant. He stirred up 
an interest on the subject of missions that has lived 
after him. The influence of his life is felt yet. So 
was the love of Jesus in his heart that made him what 
he was, and helped him do what he did for the world. 
You may not be called to go to Africa as he was, and 
yet some of you may be. You may not be called to 
die early as he was, and yet some of you may be. 
But if you have "the fear of the God, which is the 
beginning of wisdom," you will have lived well, 
whether you are called away soon, or live to see the 
hundredth anniversary of this church. The shortest 
life in God's service is well spent ; the longest life 
without God is wasted. Have Jesus with you and 
you will need no "charm" to keep you from harm. 



OF FRANKLIN, INDIANA, 



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God will be your keeper, and make your life a suc- 
cessful one, whether it be long or short. 

Mr. Morey was then introduced to the children 
as one whom they had always been delighted to hear. 
He said: 

In looking over the roll of this church I am glad 
to see so many who came into the Christian life when 
young. With very few exceptions, these who have 
thus begun their life with Christ have been the best 
Christians. The history of this church tells us that 
out of you children more Christians and better can 
be made than out of grown-up men and women. I 
bless God that he often brings the old into this new 
life, but more and more do I believe that he is going 
to replenish his Church from these mountain rills — 
from these little beginnings of life. A nursery man 
was grafting a tree, and a friend standing by said : 
"Why, sir, how strangely you do this. You are 
grafting down almost into the root." " Yes," said the 
gardener, "that is the way we graft now; we used to 
graft higher, but we graft low now." The Church is 
beginning to learn to do that, too. We want to graft 
low. The little heart in its very start in life, as soon 
as it begins to know anything, ought to be engrafted 
by the Divine Spirit. Low grafting is our great work 
now. There is a great saving of time and strength 
in being Christians right off. There is a vast waste 
of real vital force on the follies of youth. If all the 
misspent force that is here to-day could be turned 
from the service of Satan to the service of the Savior, 
a new strength would be given to this church in its 



L OF C. 



100 



FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH 



great struggle with wrong. Every young soul won 
over to this side of Christ is one less enemy for the 
Church to battle with, and a far better accession to 
the Christian ranks than any older soul could be. 
Not that any of your souls can be more precious than 
older persons, but so far as this world is concerned, 
your conversion is much more important than that of 
any of these men or women. You are to live longer 
and exert a much wider influence than these who are 
far along in life. There is a very great difference be- 
tween letting Christ have the whole life, or merely the 
worn-out end of it — the mere snuff of the candle. 
Every one of you who will be a Christian will have an 
immense advantage over those who enter the list later 
in life. So I feel like urging you to be Christians to- 
day. That is what this gathering of Christians are 
saying to you. 

After a few remarks by the pastor, urging the chil- 
dren to consecrate themselves to Jesus, in application 
of Mr. Morey's address, the meeting was closed. 

The communion service of the evening was largely 
attended, every available inch of room in the church 
being occupied. It was not designed that a formal 
sermon should be preached; but a programme had 
been arranged for short addresses. 

The service was introduced by the singing of the 
anthem : " It is Finished." 

The Scriptures were read by Rev. Eliphalet Kent, 
of Shelbyville, when the congregation joined in sing- 
ing the hymn : 



OF FRANKLIN, INDIANA. 



101 



Awake, my soul, to joyful lays, 
And sing the great Redeemer's praise ; 
He justly claims a song from me: 
His lovingkindness, oh, how free ! 

He saw me ruined in the fall, 
Yet loved me, notwithstanding all ; 
He saved me from my lost estate: 
His lovingkindness, oh, how great! 

Though numerous hosts of mighty foes, 
Though earth and hell my way oppose, 
He safely leads my soul along: 
His lovingkindness, oh, how strong ! 

When trouble, like a gloomy cloud, 
Has gathered thick and thundered loud, 
He near my soul has always stood: 
His lovingkindness, oh, how good! 

Prayer was offered and the people sang again : 

If human kindness meets return, 

And owns the grateful tie; 
If tender thoughts within us burn, 

To feel a friend is nigh; — 

Oh, shall not warmer accents tell 

The gratitude we owe 
To him, who died our fears to quell — 

Who bore our guilt and woe ! 

While yet in anguish he surveyed 
Those pangs he would not flee, 
What love his latest words displayed, 
"Meet and remember me 1" 

Remember thee — thy death, thy shame, 

Our sinful hearts to share ! — 
O memory ! leave no other name 

But his recorded there. 

10 



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FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH 



Rev. Dr. Morris, of Oxford, Ohio, addressed the 
communicants as follows : 

As you gather around this communion-table, this 
evening, please bear in mind, Christian brethren, that 
the Church of God has ever been composed of be- 
lievers and their children. This is the Bible Church 
and has been in every age. The Old Testament and 
the New are full of it. It was with Adam and his 
family ; it was with Noah and his household in the 
ark, when all else perished ; and so with Abraham, 
through whose faith we and all the children of God 
in every age shall be blessed wonderfully and glori- 
ously. Remember the inspired words of those great 
servants of the Lord Jesus, on that night of earth- 
quake and the mighty power of God, when the trem- 
bling jailer cried for salvation : " Believe on the Lord 
Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house." 
There it is, Christian brethren, in all its fullness and 
glory. It is the old doctrine and the new ; it is one 
forever. "And thy house." That was put there for 
a meaning. These words are often omitted in the 
quotation of this passage. Alas for such blunders. 
Yes, " Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou 
shalt be saved, and thy house" Oh, that we under- 
stood it and felt its amazing grace and mighty power ! 

Now you gather on this joyous occasion to render 
thanks to God for his gospel and for his mercy and 
grace to your fathers and their children. You come 
to prepare for eternal glory and endless communion 
in heaven. But where are your children ? Are they 
all here ? What are your thoughts and the heavings 
of your hearts for them this night? When you 



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gather around your table at home your first thoughts 
are for your children. If any are absent you earn- 
estly inquire for them ; if any are sick you see to 
them at once. Your parental love will not be satis- 
fied until they are answered for and attended to. 
And yet, Christian brethren, you are now gathered 
at a table of vastly more significance and importance. 
Here are the emblems of eternal life. You are com- 
manded to do these things in remembrance of him 
who bore our sins on the cross of Calvary. If we 
love him we will joyfully keep his commandments ; 
and if we love our children, with the love of Christ in 
our hearts, we will never be satisfied until our chil- 
dren shall gather with us at this antitype of the 
marriage supper of the Lamb in glory. 

Oh, Christian brethren, think upon these things 
deeply, seriously and prayerfully ! The Lord has 
entered into covenant with you on behalf of your- 
selves and your households. He will remember his 
covenant and his promise; but will you remember 
him and his great salvation ? This is the object and 
the end of all the means of grace. A failure here is 
vital and irreparable. The Church of God was 
founded in the family. Were parents but faithful, the 
blessings of grace would be coextensive with the 
people of God. " Train up a child in the way he 
should go, and when he is old, he will not depart from 
it." This is the command and the promise of God, 
and God never makes any mistakes. We are all 
living illustrations of the power of instruction and 
the force of example. For good or for evil, this is 



100 



FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH 



everywhere the fact. The Bible is full of this doc- 
trine, from the beginning to the end. 

We may neglect and be unfaithful, but never the 
Lord. In token of our faith and ratification of the 
covenant, we bring our children to God in baptism. 
They need the regenerating and cleansing power of 
the Holy Ghost, through the atoning blood of Jesus 
Christ. The sprinkling of the pure water illustrates 
the sprinkling of the blood of Jesus, and the purifi- 
cation and sanctification of the Holy Spirit. We 
give them to God for this high and holy purpose. It 
is no empty ceremony. It is the seal of the right- 
eousness of faith. We promise, most solemnly, to 
" bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the 
Lord ; " we promise to pray with and for them, and 
to do all in our power to save their souls. Oh, what 
a far-reaching and glorious theory this is ! It is 
stamped with divinity and love. No wonder the 
Lord Jesus said : " Suffer the little children to come 
unto me, and forbid them not: for of such is the 
kingdom of God." Yes, "and he took them up in 
his arms, put his hands on them, and blessed them." 
And, parents, had we all been faithful to our holy 
vows, would not all our children be the children of 
God ? We all know the power of parental influence 
and example. Our children readily take us to be the 
wisest and best people in the world. And then we 
have the promise, absolute and explicit, of God him- 
self, that he will be a God to his people and their 
children after them. What, then, is our spirit and 
influence at home y as we live and move among our 
households ? Our children insensibly and irresistibly 



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105 



imbibe our spirit and temper, and follow our conduct. 
We may have the form of godliness, but be destitute 
of the power of it; perhaps we are fitful and incon- 
stant in our life; may be we are not loving, and gen- 
tle, and firm in our government; religious duties are 
sometimes slighted or neglected altogether. Many a 
nominally Christian household has no family worship 
at all — and then the spirit is work, work, or fashion, 
show, frivolity and worldly indulgence. How can 
religion flourish in such a family? Is it wonderful 
that the children of professors of religion sometimes 
wander away from the fold of God and are lost? The 
human heart naturally hates grace and salvation. 
Long ago the prophet exclaimed : " The heart is de- 
ceitful above all things, and desperately wicked. Who 
can know it?" Truth, and gentleness, and love com- 
bined, with the mighty power of God, can alone 
change this wicked heart of man. The greatest ob- 
stacle in the way of salvation is inconsistency and 
unfaithfulness. This is a wonderful comfort to the 
poor sinner. But oh how his conscience is troubled, 
and sleep departs from his eyes, when he remembers 
the holy scenes at family worship, the reading of the 
Bible, the songs of Zion, and those heartfelt prayers 
and tears — it may be now of some sainted father or 
mother gone to glory ! These are the kindlings of 
the Holy Spirit that bring many a wandering prod- 
igal back to his Father's house with joy and rejoicing. 
Oh, the prayer of faith and the holy life, who can 
estimate this heavenly power ? Sometimes we are at 
a loss to interpret the providences of God. We see 
children of good people wander off and die in sin 



106 



FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH 



and rebellion. We exclaim, Can it be possible ! But, 
Christian brethren, the best of men are but imperfect, 
while God is just and holy. We are compelled to 
conclude that such parents have fallen short, have 
failed in that deep earnestness of heart and life, de- 
manded of those who would secure' the salvation of 
the souls of impenitent children. God can never fail 
on his part. Should the separation come — even an 
eternal separation — the Judge of all the earth must 
do right. Man has been at fault. But next to his 
own salvation, the highest and holiest object for which 
a parent can live and labor is the salvation of his 
children. Everything else must be subordinate to this 
holy result. Then religion becomes a living reality. 
The home is full of joy and gladness. Then the Sab- 
bath-school is a Bethel, and the house of God the 
house of prayer, and the table of the Lord Jesus 
radiant with his presence, while over all is the banner 
of his love. This is religion. Religion is every- 
thing, and a foretaste of the glory that shall be re- 
vealed, 

Permit me, Christian brethren, to speak to you 
freely on this subject this evening, for I feel it deeply 
and strongly. Everything else shrinks into nothing- 
ness in comparison with this theme. " For what is a 
man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and 
lose his own soul ? or what shall a man give in ex- 
change for his soul ? " You seek education and po- 
sition for your children, and that is all very well ; but 
when you and your children come to die, they can 
carry nothing to the eternal world but the love of 
God in a renewed soul. This is everything. W T ith- 



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107 



out it they had better never have been born. Then 
let no love, no prayer, no effort be too much to se- 
cure the temporal and eternal welfare of your chil- 
dren. Oh what a joy it will be at that great and 
final jubilee, at last, to be able to exclaim : " Behold, 
I and the children which God hath given me! " This 
indeed will be " joy unspeakable and full of glory." 

To your speaker, Christian brethren, this is a theme 
of the tenderest interest. All that he has for this 
life as a minister of Jesus, and all that he hopes for 
in the eternal future, he owes, under God, to the 
prayers and covenant faith of a sainted mother. 

More than fifty years ago this mother lay upon a 
dying bed, on the southern bank of the Ohio, in Ken- 
tucky. She had just been converted. She, too, was 
of your old Huguenot and Holland stock. Her hus- 
band was a man of the world and skeptical. She 
sought admission to the Church of Christ. Some 
impressions had led her to favor immersion. But this 
was impossible, though a full river flowed at her side. 
She could not think her divine Lord would make a 
form of admission to be impossible, unless at the 
sacrifice of her few remaining days. Besides, she 
had called to her assistance that famous Presbyterian 
minister, William L. McCalla, then pastor at Augusta, 
Kentucky. This able man of God expounded unto 
her the word of the Lord more perfectly. The Spirit 
had been applied to her soul, and she wanted the em- 
blematical water applied to her person, and not' her 
person to the water. And so she was baptized in 
faith and hope. But there were two little children, 
too small to know their irreparable loss, and about 



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to be left in the midst of a sinful world. Her moth- 
erly heart yearned over these children, and she ex- 
claimed: " What will become of my poor little chil- 
dren when I am dead and gone ? " She determined 
to give them to God in covenant, as she had given 
herself to him. She asked for their baptism, on the 
faith of a dying believer, and over her coffin, after her 
funeral sermon from this man of God, these children 
were baptized, on the faith of that sainted mother. 
Enough is remembered of that tender scene to leave 
an indelible photograph on the mind and heart; and 
that sainted mother, though dead these many years, 
yet speaketh. Soon that little sister was transplanted 
to glory. Then that strong-willed, unbelieving father 
bowed his head in faith and became a sterling and 
devoted Christian. He loved that child with un- 
wonted affection, and the Lord graciously drew him 
to himself. And what an eminently godly man he 
became ! Such faith, such zeal, according to knowl- 
edge, and such success in winning souls for Christ! 
Yet there was one who resisted it all and hardened 
his heart. His mother's faith and dedication, and his 
father's prayers and tears were ever before him. He 
felt that he must be a Christian and a minister of 
Jesus. But he detested being dependent upon other 
people for a support. He wanted to be a lawyer and 
a politician ; he wanted to come to your young and 
rising State and become a great man. A few more 
years and that future died in the triumphs of faith, 
winning many souls to Christ, even on his death-bed. 
Then, at last, this proud and rebellious youth, after 
days of mortal agony, yielded his heart to the Lord, 



OF FRANKLIN, INDIANA. 



109 



and at once determined to preach Christ, though for 
the future he should have to live on bread and water. 
But God has always provided for him; and here he is 
to-night, pleading with you, Christian fathers and 
mothers, as you love the Lord, as you love the souls 
of your children, to remember the covenant of God 
and never give over your faithful instructions, and 
your prayers and tears, until all your children shall 
become Converted and be gathered with you around 
the table of the Lord Jesus. Be encouraged to a holy 
life, both for yourselves and your children. And 
then, oh how vast your influence for good, when you 
thus live for eternal glory ! 

Rev. Mr. Kent followed in an address, making 
touching reference to the early scenes of Christian 
work in the State, having participated in those labors 
when the churches were feeble and widely scattered. 

Rev. Mr. Parker spoke of the similarity of strug- 
gle and of embarrassment of the church at Colum- 
bus, and of this church, in early days. He referred 
also to the recent affliction of this church, in the de- 
parture to his glorious reward, of Elder Harvey 
Sloan, and the bereavement of the Columbus church 
in the death of Elder Griffith, who had just passed 
into rest, after a faithful life service. 

After these addresses* Rev. A. B. Morey, for many 
years pastor of the church, and Rev. S. E. Wishard, 
the present pastor, came forward to the table. . Mr. 
Morey administered the bread and Mr. Wishard the 



* We regret that a copy of these addresses could not be obtained, as it 
was our desire to have published in full all the addresses of our brethren 
who were with us. S. E. W. 



110 



FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH 



cup. At the conclusion of the administration of the 
ordinance, Mr, Morey addressed the company of 
Christ's people. He said : 

I can not tell you how my soul is drawn out to 
this scene. I have sat down here with you many 
times, and always with feelings that stir the soul, but 
this time it is with a strange feeling that enters into 
my very inmost life. I feel like the tourist, who, in 
a city of many sights, was so attracted by one pic- 
ture that he did not care to look out for any other. 
Day by day, for many months, he returned to the 
gallery and sat spellbound before the wonderful 
vision, drinking in the soul and beauty of it, and his 
eyes sometimes tingling toward a tear, as a new 
thought came floating to the surface. When at last 
the day arrives for his departure, and his luggage was 
packed, and his carriage was ready at the door, he 
ran back to take another and the last look of what 
was henceforth to be, though he knew it not, only 
the shadow of the living form of a life-long compan- 
ion, for as he went on his journey he saw face to face 
the very person of whom that picture was only the 
picture ; and they two made one ever after in heart 
and home. And so have I come again and again to 
this portrait, which shows forth Christ till he come. 
I have stood with you before this golden frame, 
through which his blessed face looks forth upon us. 
It seems as if there was no need of looking for any 
other joy as we looked upon this, for all that is true 
and good in all others were here. Oh, what sweet, 
swift, strange thoughts have sprung up in our minds 



OF FRANKLIN, INDIANA. 



Ill 



as we have come again and again, and looked and 
looked upon this picture of our dear friend, and knelt, 
and mused, and wept before it, and, gazing again and 
again, have said within ourselves : "And he is my 
brother, and I am to be like him, and I shall be with 
him, where he is, in glory! " But now it may be the 
time is come for some of us " to depart and be with 
Christ." I miss dear Father Sloan here. I have un- 
consciously looked among your faces for the face of 
our beloved Bro. Terrill ; but he, too, is gone. Per- 
haps the messenger is at the door for some of us to 
go on our long journey. I have felt as if I wanted 
to come back here once more and take another look 
at this face of my Savior, as it shines out in this 
sacrament, before I go to see it in the clear light of 
God's glory; for, though we may little think of it, 
we are going to see him soon and be ever one with 
him. 

Is not this the place and time to reconsecrate our- 
selves to him " who loved us and gave himself for us ?" 

Mr. Wishard followed with a few brief words, 
saying : 

From my life and my toil there comes just one ad- 
monition this evening. There (pointing to the in- 
scription above the clock) it is: "The Time is Short/' 
Those words are the more impressive to me because 
the letters composing them were wrought out by the 
young people of the congregation and placed there 
to speak to us this evening; as if the young, in the 
early vigor and strength of life, were rising up to ad- 
monish us. Fifty years of the life of this church 



112 



FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH 



have gone. It is now the last day in the evening, 
and this the closing service, the closing thought of 
those fifty years. "The time is short." Yes, fifty 
years, though long in the experience, long to those 
who toiled, prayed, wept, and went forward under 
burdens, yet are short To the spirits of those who 
have gone from us, .and who look back upon those 
years, they are short. As a dream when one awaketh, 
as a watch in the night — just a moment — as a soli- 
tary tick from that clock. And for all our coming 
work the same is true — " The time is short." Let us 
gird ourselves, step to the front, seize upon the golden 
opportunities which God is placing in our hands. And 
may the Master strengthen every soul for his work, 
and lead us all through labor to glory. Amen. 

At the close of Mr. Wishard's remarks the congre- 
gation rose and sang the hymn : 

Blest be the tie that binds 

Our hearts in Christian love: 
The fellowship of kindred minds 

Is like to that above. 

Before our Father's throne 

We pour our ardent prayers; 
Our fears, our hopes, our aims are one, 

Our comforts and our cares. 

We share our mutual woes, 

Our mutual burdens bear j 
And often for each other flows 

The sympathizing tear. 

When we asunder part, 

It gives us inward pain j 
But we shall still be joined in heart, 

And hope to meet again. 



OF FRANKLIN, INDIANA. 



113 



From sorrow, toil, and pain, 

And sin, we shall be free, 
And perfect love and friendship reign 

Through all eternity. 

The benediction was pronounced by President 
Tuttle, and the large audience retired, realizing that 
the day had been one -of highest earthly privilege. It 
was at least a type of that day when the children of 
the kingdom shall, at the Master's feet, recount his 
love and " sing his matchless grace." 



MEMORIAL DAY, 

November 30, 1874. 



HISTORICAL PAPER, 

By Judge D. D. Banta. 

MEMORIAL OF Rev. DAVID MONFORT, D. D., 
FIRST PASTOR, 

By Key J. G. Monfort, D. D. 

HISTORY OF THE SABBATH SCHOOL, 

By S. E. Wishakd, Pastor. 

REMINISCENCE MEETING, 

LETTERS OF CONGRATULATION, 

By Revs. Jas. A. McKee, Jas. Johnson 

AND P. S. CLELAND. 



COLLATION . 



r jV it t 1 g 11 y 3 r iv . 



MEMOKIAL DAY. 



Monday morning (November 30, 1874) introduced 
the exercises and scenes of Memorial Day. 

The preceding days, Saturday and Sabbath, with 
their delightful services, had grown in interest from 
the first. The key-note, struck by Dr. Monfort's 
sermon on The Kingdom of God, had echoed through 
all the subsequent services. Every coming together 
of the congregation had brought with it new elements 
of interest and power. The crowning service of the 
Sabbath evening, when all sat about the table of the 
Master, brought us to the highest elevation of spirit- 
ual privilege and pleasure. Memorial morning intro- 
duced, or brought forward more prominently, other 
scenes and thoughts. This morning memory stepped 
to the platform and spoke to us. We were carried 
back to the mei> and women, the homes and lives 
the scenes and toils of those who have finished their, 
work, and are gone to their rest, while a few of them 
remain with us, just enough to link us to the past, 
and give us a real fellowship in all that was done in 
those early times. 

The" County Court, over which Judge Banta pre- 
sided, took a recess. The audience this morning re- 
ceived an addition to its numbers from the profes- 
sional men of the city, and others came from abroad. 
11 (117) 



118 



FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH 



As introductory to the services, which began at 
9:30 A. M., the choir sang the anthem: "The Lord 
is my Light," etc. Half an hour was spent in de- 
votional exercises. Judge Banta was then introduced 
to the audience, and proceeded with the following 
historical facts : 

HISTORICAL ADDRESS. 



Ladies and Gentlemen : 

The Presbyterian Church of Franklin 
has reached what we may hope to be the first mile- 
stone in its journey of usefulness. Fifty years ago, 
to-day, three men and two women united in the or- 
ganization of this church ; and as a man may, with 
profit to himself, at stated times take a retrospective 
view of his past life, so may the members of this 
church, on this its semi-centennial anniversary, profit- 
ably spend a few moments in reviewing the history 
which it has made. I do not suppose that this his- 
tory presents any pages of special interest to the 
general public ; it contains no startling incidents, no 
remarkable events, no curious revelations, no circum- 
stances of dramatic interest whatever. It is a simple 
and an unambitious history. It is the record of the 
work of a succession of plain, earnest Christian men 
and women, laboring to build up and maintain a 
church reflecting their views of religious belief and 
Christian duty. Only this and nothing more. But 
simple and unambitious as it may be, surely there are 
some facts of encouragement or warning, some ex- 



OP FRANKLIN, INDIANA. 



119 



amples of good or evil, some practices to be approved 
or condemned, which it may disclose, and which it 
may do the members of this congregation good to 
know. 

Up to within four years before the organization of 
this church, the Indians actually held possession of 
all the territory watered by the White River and its 
numerous tributaries, including that comprised within 
the present boundaries of Johnson County. In 1820 
this possession was surrendered to the Federal Gov- 
ernment, in accordance with the terms of a treaty 
made near the St. Mary's River, in Ohio, two years 
before, and in that year the lands within the New 
Purchase, as the region surrendered by this treaty 
was called, were thrown into the market ; and in the 
same year the first settlers came into this county. 
Two paths led here. One came from the southern 
part of the State, and by this John Campbell, a Ten- 
nessean, entered the Blue River Valley and made a 
permanent settlement near the present site of Edin- 
burg, in the month of March. Another path had 
been cut through the woods leading from Brookville 
to the bluffs on White River, through the northern 
part of this county, as early as 18 18, by Jacob 
Whetzel, and along this Abraham Sells, an Ohioan, 
came about the time Campbell located on Blue River, 
and made the first settlement in White River Town- 
ship. The wilderness had now been invaded by these 
two hardy pioneers, and although we can not say 
there was a deep and broad stream of immigration 
pouring into the county from that day on, as is the 
case with many places now being colonized in the 



120 



FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH 



Far West, yet immigrants followed at intervals, and in 
less than six years after Campbell and Sells came, set- 
tlements were established in every part of the county. 

In the autumn of 1821 Joseph Young, a native of 
North Carolina, located in the angle formed by the 
junction of Sugar and Young's Creeks. The autumn 
following, George King, Simon Covert and Garrett C. 
Bergen came from Kentucky in search of homes, and 
being pleased with the prospect, King entered that 
tract which he afterward laid off as West Franklin, 
and at the same time he purchased from Daniel 
Pritchard, who had a short time before entered the 
same, that tract or parcel of land which was afterward 
laid off as the original plat of Franklin, and Bergen 
entered the tract north of Pritchard's entry, while 
Covert entered over on Hurricane, to the east. In 
the month of March following (1823) David W. 
McCaslin, who was also from Kentucky, accompanied 
by his family, and King, and Covert, whose families 
(with the exception of King's daughter, Elizabeth) 
remained behind, and Isaac Voris, then a young and 
unmarried man, arrived at Joseph Young's on their 
way to the purchases made the fall before. No road 
led farther in that direction than to the cabin of Elisha 
Adams, who had located near the present site of 
Amity; but one was chopped out leading from 
Adams' to this place, and the wagons containing the 
families and movable goods of McCaslin were driven 
close after the ax-men. It was late in the evening 
when the little party, wearied and footsore, arrived at 
the Hurricane, which stream was so swollen with the 
spring rains that they dared not attempt the crossing 



OF FRANKLIN, INDIANA. 



121 



till the next morning, but camped for the night upon 
the knoll where now stand the college buildings. 
The next morning they crossed over, and threading 
their way through the " spice-brush," which grew here 
to a most remarkable height, they began the erection 
of Mr. King's cabin, at a point a few rods west of the 
present crossing of the Cincinnati and Martinsville 
Railroad with Jefferson Street ; and this was followed 
shortly after by David W. McCaslin's, built on the 
south side of Young's Creek, and by Simon Covert's, 
on the west side of the Hurricane. 

On the last day of the year 1822 Johnson County 
had been organized, and sometime during the latter 
part of the summer, or early part of the autumn of 
1823, the town of Franklin was located and surveyed; 
but no houses were built within the town limits until 
the spring of 1824, when a cabin was built on the 
west side of the square and a tippling trade established 
therein. It is due to history to say, however, that the 
proprietor of this house remained but a short time. 
It is remembered of him that his poverty was so great 
that he was unable to bring into the market any com- 
modity save beer, and that, a cheap article, in a small 
quantity at a time. The younger men of the vicinity 
would occasionally visit his business-house in a body, 
and, buying out his entire stock, would, after drink- 
ing a part, pour the remainder upon the ground. 
This was, as you perceive, a "mild-mannered" sort of 
crusading ; but it had the intended effect. The dealer 
was not wanted in this place, and although his price 
was paid and his beverage sold, he nevertheless took 
the hint and left the county. 



122 



FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH 



Other improvements followed in 1824. John 
Smiley built a log house on the corner of Main and 
Jefferson Streets, and opened therein an inn for the 
"entertainment of man and beast." Daniel Taylor 
put up a log storeroom to the west of the new tav- 
ern, and exposed to sale a little stock of dry goods 
and groceries, while Edward Springer built a smithy 
on the west side of the square, and William Shaffer a 
dwelling-house on the northeast corner. At the same 
time the county authorities caused to be erected a 
court-house on the lot lying immediately in the rear 
of the bank buildings. This was a log house two 
stories high. A broad flight of steps on the south 
end led to the upper story, which was furnished with 
four bark-bottomed chairs, three for the judges and 
one for the clerk. Benches made of split logs served 
to accommodate lawyers, juries and spectators. In 
this old log court-house the members of this church 
met for several years, when opportunity offered, to 
hear the preaching of the Word. Here no doubt 
Bush, and Dickey, and Hill, and Duncan, and others 
who ministered to this people in their days of weak- 
ness," sowed the seed which afterward sprung up and 
yielded so abundant a harvest in the central part of 
Johnson County! 

In 1822 it seems that the Rev. David Proctor came 
as a missionary to Indiana, and remained until August 
or September of 1824; but I have failed to find any 
record or memory of him ever visiting this county. 
The first Presbyterian minister of whom we have 
any account came to Franklin sometime in 1823. He 
preached the first Presbyterian sermon in the county 



OF FRANKLIN, INDIANA. 



123 



at the house of Joseph Young on Sugar Creek; and, 
coming up to Franklin, he stopped at David W. 
McCaslin's and there preached again. Notice of the 
time and place of his preaching having been given 
by a messenger, who went with the news from house 
to house, the neighbors came in to the number of 
"some half dozen;" and the preacher, sitting by the 
fireside, preached to them with great power and elo- 
quence. This was the Rev. J. H. Johnson, who came 
as a missionary from the East and traveled all over 
Central and Southern Indiana, preaching whenever 
and wherever opportunity offered. He is said to 
have been a plain but very impressive speaker, and 
certain it is, that his, the first sermon ever preached in 
Franklin, was long remembered by those who heard 
it. He subsequently settled in Madison, where he 
preached for many years ; but now an " old, old man," 
he lingers in the city of Crawfordsville, awaiting the 
"time of his departure."* 

What other ministers may have visited this place . 
prior to the organization of the church I have no 
means of knowing. A Baptist Church had been 
organized in the neighborhood of Edinburg, which 
was the first church organization in the county, and 
I think it likely that the first sermon ever preached 
in the county was by a Baptist clergyman. In Octo- 
ber, 1822, and before the Rev. J. H. Johnson came 

* Since writing the above I have learned that Mr. Johnson did not ar- 
rive in Indiana until sometime in December of this year (1823), and he 
could not therefore have been the minister referred to. I received my in- 
formation from those who are now dead, and while they remembered the 
circumstances of the preaching, they must have got names and persons 
confused. Who preached the sermon referred to is not now and probably 
never will be known. 



124 



FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH 



to Franklin, the Rev. James Scott, a Methodist min- 
ister, itinerating up White River, stopped at the 
Bluffs and there preached to the people. Mr. Scott 
stood in a cabin door, with his female hearers seated 
within, while his male hearers stood up or lolled on the 
ground without, and there preached the first Metho- 
dist sermon that ever echoed in the woods of this 
county. 

We come now to the time when this church is to 
be organized. Four men and three women are living 
in this almost unbroken wilderness who determine to 
found a church. For one moment let us think of 
the obstacles which must have appeared in the way 
of these heroic men and women. I have already in- 
dicated to you the extent of the town at that time. 
The county was as sparsely populated in all other 
parts as in this. There were not to exceed one hun- 
dred legal voters within its boundaries. Hensly and 
Union Townships had not an inhabitant living within 
their borders; but one man lived in Clarke; a few, 
not to exceed a half dozen, in Pleasant; probably 
thirty voters in White River; thirty or forty voters 
in Blue River, and a "few families " in Nineveh. And 
these were all poor men, poor even for the times in 
which they lived. Without money, and without the 
assistance which money brings, they had come here 
to make war upon nature in one of her most forbid- 
ding forms. Where now we may see broad fields 
and wide pastures of open woodland, then thickly 
stood the great oak, the poplar, the beech, the maple 
and the ash, their limbs and branches so closely in- 
tertwining, that, when clothed in their summer verd- 



OF FRANKLIN, INDIANA. 



125 



ure, a shade so deep and dark was produced as to 
shut out the sun from May to October. From the 
damp earth below sprang a growth of underbrush so 
dense that it presented in many places an impenetrable 
barrier to the horseman, and in some it was almost 
inaccessible to the footman. In connection with this, 
let it be borne in mind that the level lands, which oc- 
cupy so large a space in this county, were at that 
time inundated more than half the year. The for- 
ests were checkered over with the trunks of prostrate 
trees — some newly fallen, some sunk half their diam- 
eter in the oozy soil, and these lying in every direc- 
tion closed the drains, till there was scarcely any es- 
cape for the flood save by the slow processes of evap- 
oration and percolation. The soil, rich as it was and 
is, in organic matter, mechanically mixing with the 
watery element, rendered the paths and the woods 
almost untraversable for man or beast. There were 
no great roads upon which to travel ; there were no 
markets in which to buy or sell ; there were no broad 
fields in which to raise grain for bread. Under these 
circumstances, unpropitious as they were, the pioneer 
settlers were compelled to maintain themselves and 
their families. We may well imagine that it was in 
many instances a very struggle for life ! 

But this was not all. The moral difficulties which 
beset the path of these church organizers were also 
many and great. While the majority of the pioneer 
settlers of this county had come here to find perma- 
nent homes, and was made up of men of character, 
there was nevertheless a considerable minority com- 
posed of that class which is ever found skulking- in 



126 



FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH 



the gloom of the frontier. All history proves the 
proneness of the human mind to magnify the past at 
the expense of the present. This is true of men as 
individuals and as communities. The aged remem- 
ber with lively satisfaction the pleasures of their 
youthful years. Forgetting the evil, they, paint the 
past in the brightest colors that memory can com- 
mand, and by contrast view the present as shaded in 
a somber gloom. And so every nation has its" " golden 
age," about which its poets love to sing, and around 
which cluster the imaginations of all. The prevail- 
ing habit is to find in the past less of selfishness, and 
less of vice, and more of generosity, and more of 
virtue, than in the present. But this is the result of 
a mistaken philosophy. That the "world moves" 
toward a higher knowledge of the sciences and the 
arts is too palpable for even the liveliest imagination 
to dispute; and that it moves toward a higher plane 
of religious truth and morality, I believe to be like- 
wise equally true. The mission of Christianity is to 
elevate and ennoble men, and the most careless stu- 
dent of history must see that Christianity has not 
failed in its mission. In some things we may have 
fallen behind the morality of fifty years ago. Thus 
in politics it can not be claimed that we are better 
than our fathers ; but it must be remembered that our 
fathers did not pursue politics as a trade, as is now 
the case, and that with the advent of the professional 
politician came in the evils which all good men now 
deplore. And so in other particulars we may have 
fallen behind, but the general tendency has been up- 
ward; and it is no reflection upon those who have 



OF FRANKLIN, INDIANA. 



127 



gone before, for us to recognize the truth of this 
proposition. The early history of this county is re- 
markable for its comparative exemption from capital 
crimes. There was a less number of felonies of lower 
grade committed than is the case now perhaps in new 
settlements along the frontiers ; but the number was 
large in comparison to the present ; while in the region 
of crime known as misdemeanor, the spirit of turbu- 
lence and disorder manifested, is beyond anything 
with which we of to-day are acquainted. An exam- 
ination of the records of the Circuit Court of this 
county, for a few years after its organization, discloses 
a state of society which indicates at a glance some of 
the moral difficulties in the way of establishing and 
building up this church. At the March term of this 
court for the year 1824, the second term of court 
ever held in the county, of six causes on docket, four 
were for batteries and affrays. At the September term 
of that year of twelve causes, eight were criminal, five 
being for batteries and affrays. At the March term 
for 1825, of fifteen causes on the docket, ten were 
criminal causes, seven of which were for batteries and 
affrays. 'At the September term for that year, of fif- 
teen causes in all, eight were criminal, and were for 
batteries and affrays. At the March term for 1826, 
of nineteen causes in all, thirteen were criminal, and 
of these eleven were for batteries and affrays. At the 
September term for the same year, of seventeen causes 
on docket, ten were criminal, and of these seven "were 
for batteries and affrays. At the March term for 1827, 
of thirty-seven causes in all, nineteen were criminal, 
and of these sixteen were for batteries and affrays. 



128 



FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH 



At the September term for that year, of thirty-seven 
causes, twenty-one were criminal, and of these nine- 
teen were for batteries and affrays. At the March 
term for 1828 there were twenty-six causes in all, 
eighteen of which were criminal, and of these eleven 
were for batteries and affrays. At the September term 
for the same year, of thirty-two causes in all, tzventy- 
one were criminal, and of these eleven were for bat- 
teries and affrays. At the March term for 1829, of 
thirty-six causes, eighteen were criminal, and of these 
nine were for batteries and affrays. At the March 
term for 1830 there were thirty -one cases on the docket, 
and of these nineteen were criminal, of which nine 
were for batteries and affrays. At the September 
term for the same year, there were thirty-three causes, 
seventeen of which were criminal, and of these eleven 
were for batteries and affrays. I have thus, at the risk 
of being tedious, gone over the court dockets for a 
period of seven years, in order that you might see for 
yourselves something of the state of turbulence and 
insubordination which prevailed in these early times. 
If you will but call to mind the sparseness of popu- 
lation during the time covered by these records, you 
can see at a glance what a large number of the people 
were inclined to vindicate their own personal griev- 
ances in spite of the precepts of religion and the penal- 
ties of the law. Thus, in 1826 there were one hun- 
dred and seventy-three votes cast in this county, and 
there were eighteen prosecutions in the Circuit Court 
for fighting, which is one fight to about every ninth 
voter. When I say, therefore, that the moral difficul- 
ties which confronted the little band of men and wo- 



OF FRANKLIN, INDIANA. 



129 



men in their effort to found and build up this church, 
were great, I think the facts will bear me out ; and 
when we consider both moral and physical obstacles 
in the way, who will say there was not a heroism* dis- 
played by them worthy of all praise ? To these 
faithful Christian men and women, and to all the little 
bands of faithful Christian men and women through- 
out this county and State, who, notwithstanding the 
adverse circumstances surrounding them, yet conse- 
crated themselves to the building up of churches to 
the living God here in the wilderness, all lovers of 
Christianity and of good order in government owe a 
debt of lasting gratitude. 

In what house the little congregation met to engage 
in "public worship" on the occasion of the organiza- 
tion of this church, I am not advised ; but it is not 
unfair to presume that it was in the old log court- 
house ; and while my faith does not allow me to at- 
tach any importance to place, I am not slow to confess 
that I would be glad to be able to say, with certainty, 
that it was in this house, dedicated to earthly justice. 
The church and the court-house ! Both ordained 
to promote good order and fair dealing among men, 
though working in different modes, and neither able 
to stand alone, in my judgment, without the other. 
How fitting and how appropriate, that, in the infancy 
of this community, the same house in which evil-doers 
were taught to fear the laws of the land, the con- 
sciences of men should be taught to fear the laws of 
both God and man ! But, be this as it may, the record 
chronicling the organization reads as follows : 



130 



FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH 



Franklin, Johnson County, Ind., Nov. 30, 1824. 
This certifies that, after public worship, the follow- 
ing persons, who were members of the Presbyterian 
Church, came forward and were by administration of 
the subscriber, with prayer, constituted a Church of 
Christ, which was by agreement called Franklin. 
Names of Members : 
Males. Females. 
GEORGE KING, ELENOR KING, 

JOSEPH YOUNG, NANCY YOUNG. 

DAVID W. McCASLIN. 

The members proceeded to choose George King 
and David W. McCaslin to the office of ruling elders, 
who. were ordained to that office after a sermon by 
the Rev. George Bush. The session then received 
Jane McCaslin, a member of the church, on examin- 
ation. 

(Signed.) Rev. JOHN M. DICKEY, Moderator. 

At this point it may not be improper to speak a 
word with reference to the ministers who officiated on 
this occasion. From the internal evidence contained 
in this record, it is apparent that the Rev. John M. 
Dickey preached the organization sermon, if we may 
call it such. This man was at that time engaged in 
missionary work in Southern and Central Indiana. 
He came from Kentucky, and, after several years of 
missionary labor, was settled as a pastor in the south- 
ern part of the State, where he subsequently died. 
He is described as ''being small, and unprepossessing 
in his appearance." Like Paul, his " bodily presence 
was weak," but his words " were weighty and power- 



OF FRANKLIN, INDIANA. 



131 



ful." Of the Rev. George Bush, who preached the 
ordination sermon, more is known. He was born in 
Vermont, in 1796, was educated at Dartmouth College, 
and studied theology at Princeton. In 1824 he came 
to Indianapolis, and remained in this State for nearly 
five years, performing missionary work part of that 
time, and pastoral a part' He is said to have been of 
good " bodily presence," captivating in his manners 
and pleasing in his address. In his preaching he was 
scholarly, always clear and sometimes eloquent. 
After leaving this field he was elected Professor of 
Hebrew and Oriental Literature in the University of 
New York, where he soon became celebrated for his 
Biblical learning. He was the author of a " Life of 
Mohammed," of a " Treatise on the Millennium," of 
"Scriptural Illustrations," of a " Hebrew Grammar," 
and of a series of Bible commentaries, with which 
last production some of you are doubtless acquainted. 
In the later years of his life he a'dopted the Sweden- 
borgian faith, and about five years ago he died almost 
in destitution and want. We do not know that Mr. 
Bush ever preached here again, but it is reasonable 
to suppose that he did, inasmuch as he remained in 
the field for nearly five years afterward. It is certain, 
however, that Mr. Dickey occasionally ministered here 
for several years following his first recorded appear- 
ance. 

The church is now organized, the vine has been 
planted, and now let us glance over the fifty years 
that have come and gone since then, and take such 
note of the results as the opportunity allows. 

The record read shows that Jane McCaslin, who 



132 



FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH 



was the wife of David W., was the first member ad- 
mitted on " profession of faith." On the 25th of June 
following, Simon Covert and Mary, his wife, were ad- 
mitted on " certificates" issued by the Providence 
Congregation in Kentucky, and they were therefore 
the first members admitted in this manner. At the 
same time their infant daughter, Dorothy Ann, was 
baptized, and this was the first celebration of this or- 
dinance occurring within the church. In August of 

1827, Mrs. Margaret Gilchrist, the wife of Robert Gil- 
christ, died, hers being the first death of a member 
of this church. 

The growth of the church was necessarily slow, 
but there was a gradual growth from the very first. 
We have seen that one member, Mrs. McCaslin, was 
added on examination the first year. Three were 
added on certificate in 1825, the second year. In 
1827 seven members were added on certificate, and in 

1828, four on examination. At the close of this year 
the membership numbered nineteen, but the year fol- 
lowing it went up to fifty-one. Of the new members 
admitted this year (1829) ten were on certificate, and 
twenty-one, which was greater than the whole number 
in the church at the close of the year before, were 
converts. This is the first revival which is recorded 
in the history of the church. From the record it 
appears that the good work began in January, for on 
the tenth of this month, which was Sunday, the ten 
members were admitted on certificate, and two on ex- 
amination. On the twelfth four more were added in 
like manner. On the fourth Sunday in June eight 
were added, and on the fourth Sunday in August eight 



OF FRANKLIN, INDIANA. 



133 



more, which is thirty-one in all. The next year, 1830, 
thirty members were added, all on certificate, save 
three. 

The church has now been organized for six years, 
and it has grown from five members to seventy-seven. 
Of these thirty-two are males and forty-five are fe- 
males. Twenty-seven have been admitted on profes- 
sion and fifty on certificate. During these years there 
has been neither pastor nor stated place of worship. 
Sometimes the meetings were held at Pleasant Hill, 
now Hopewell, sometimes the members met at pri- 
vate houses, occasionally in the open woods, but 
oftener in the old log court-house. Those who min- 
istered to this people then came at the charge of 
others ; Franklin was a missionary station. Of these 
missionaries, the names of Revs. Isaac Reed, William 
Duncan, John Moreland, Jeremiah Hill and William 
Wood are the most familiar to the reader of the 
records of these times. Of these men I have been 
able to learn but little ; so little that it is scarcely 
worth the telling. Isaac Reed lived at Bloomington, in 
this State, when preaching here, but subsequently 
moved to Illinois, and died in the city of Alton. Wil- 
liam Duncan was a Scotch divine, and the preacher 
of long, methodical, doctrinal sermons. He belonged 
to a ministerial school which is now believed to be ex- 
tinct. A dear lover of tobacco, he always preached with 
the "weed " in his mouth, and the younger members 
of his congregation counted with lively interest the 
number of quids taken, for thereby they could calcu- 
late with unfailing certainty the near approach of the 

end. It is said of him, upon what seems at this time 

13 



134 



FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH 



to be good authority, that he occasionally tasted of 
strong drink, for the " stom ch's sake;" and, in justi- 
fication of the act, he said, in the language of Paul to 
Timothy : " For every creature of God is good, and 
nothing to be refused, if it be received with thanks- 
giving." After being worn out in the service, Mr. 
Duncan went to Ohio, and there died. The Rev. 
John Moreland was of Southern origin. He was tall 
and commanding in his person, affectionate, social, 
enthusiastic and eloquent. As a sermonizer he had 
many superiors ; but as an exhorter, he was excelled 
by none. The Rev William Wood was also a South- 
ern man — a Tennessean ; his academic acquirements 
were limited, and his theological training was had 
under the celebrated Dr. Anderson, of Marysville, in 
his native State. He died about the close of the late 
war, while acting under the auspices of the Christian 
Commission in the South. The Rev. Jeremiah Hill 
was an Eastern man, and in his earlier years followed 
the sea; and, like John Bunyan, was a proficient in 
all the vices peculiar to his vocation. Being converted 
after he arrived to years of maturity, he moved to 
Tennessee, where he entered the theological school 
of Dr. Anderson, along with William Wood; and, 
like him, of limited scholastic acquirements, he im- 
bibed the theological theories of his teacher. Both 
were ardent and enthusiastic, and both strong in ex- 
hortation rather than in sermonizing. In the great 
controversy of 1837 and 1838 which shook the Pres- 
byterian Church of the United States to its very cen- 
ter, and which resulted in the second great division 
which has come upon it in its history in America, 



OF FRANKLIN, INDIANA. 



135 



Wood and Hill took an active part, and they were 
the recognized leaders of the New School brethren in 
this Presbytery. 

It is a fact well known to the most casual readers 
of western history, that about the close of the Rev- 
olutionary War a strong t'de of emigration set into 
Kentucky from the seaboard States. With these em- 
igrants came a colony from Northern New Jersey, 
principally from Bergen County — the descendants of 
the Dutch colonists of New Amsterdam — which lo- 
cated in the neighborhood of Harrod's Station, now 
Harrodsburg, in Mercer County. These people 
brought with them a Calvinistic faith, and for a time 
maintained their connection with the Dutch Reformed 
Church, of New Jersey. A missionary, Dominie 
Laubaugh, was sent out to them by the Classis of that 
State, but after a short time he returned, and the 
Voorheis, the Demarees, the Smocks, the Coverts, the 
Bantas, the Vannuys, the Bergens, the Vanarsdalls, 
the Brewers, the Lists, and others of this Dutch blood 
and Dutch faith gravitated into the Presbyterian 
Church.* After the lapse of a few years the Mercer 
County Dutchmen became restless, and a part of them 
made another move, this time coming down, into 
Shelby and Henry Counties, in the same State, where 

*From a letter received from the Rev. David D. Demarest, D. D., of 
New Jersey, after the above was written, I learn that Peter Laubaugh was 
sent out by the New Jersey Classis, in response to a request from members 
of the Reformed Church who had settled in Kentucky. "He was,"- says 
Dr. Demarest, "ordained by the Classis of Hackensack, July 21st, 1796, 
with a view to settlement among the people of Salt River, Mercer County, 
Kentucky." * * * u Early in February, 1797, after a journey 
of about three months," he reached Mercer County, where he seems to 
have organized a church at once, and at the expiration of three months set 
his face eastward ; and though it was his intention to return to Kentucky, 
yet from some cause he never did. 



136 



FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH 



they located, in what is still known among Kentuck- 
ians of that region, as the " Dutch Tract." Here they 
organized a church, and old Archibald Cameron, a 
Scotch Presbyterian divine, of remarkable eccentricity 
of character, but theologically as sound to the core 
as old John Knox himself, long ministered unto them. 
The original colonizers of the Dutch tract having 
passed away, their children, uneasy and restless as 
their fathers had been before them, again took up the 
line of march, and this time came to our own county. 
The first considerable number which arrived, as ap- 
pears from the church records, was in 1827; and 
making their location in the vicinity of the "Big 
Spring," now Hopewell, they were joined by others, 
until in 1830, forty of the seventy-seven members of 
this church were living in that neighborhood. It now 
became evident to all, as well as desirable, that the 
church should be divided, and a separate organization 
established for the accommodation and convenience 
of those living in the country ; and, accordingly, in 
the spring of 1 83 1 , Presbytery, then in session at 
Greensburg, ordered a division to take place ; and 
in May, of the same year, this was done by the forty 
members being dismissed, who, on the 23d day of 
that month, duly organized the church of Hopewell.* 

*When the question was first agitated among the people there was a de- 
sire manifested by some of the Franklin members to continue the connec- 
tion, and build a house of worship at a point about half way between 
Franklin and the present site of the Hopewell Church. The location in- 
dicated for the proposed house was on the high ground, immediately east 
of the iron bridge over Young's Creek, on the Bluff Road. A meeting 
was held at the house of Simon Covert, who then lived in the Hopewell 
neighborhood, when the proposition was discussed, and, as we now see, 
wisely voted down. The Hopewell people were unanimously opposed to it. 



OP FRANKLIN, INDIANA. 



137 



In June, 1830, it appears that the Rev. David Mon- 
fort, of the Presbytery of Chillicothe, Ohio, was pres- 
ent on the occasion of the celebration of the Lord's 
Supper, at Pleasant Hill. This is the first indication 
we have of his presence in this country, and I think 
it altogether likely that he was then looking out for 
himself a field for his future labor. He seems to have 
been satisfied with the prospect, for on the first day 
of the following Novemb t, as appears by an entry 
upon the record made in his own hand, he " com- 
menced labors as a stated supply or missionary." 
This position he occupied until the next October, 
when he was regularly installed as pastor of both 
this and the Hopewell Church, on a salary of three 
hundred dollars per year. The Revs. William Sickles 
and Eliphalet Ken had been appointed by Presbytery 
as a committee, to assist in the installation, and Mr. 
Kent, who still survives, a hale hearty old man of 
seventy- four years, preached the installation sermon 
from Jeremiah iii. 15: "I will give you pastors ac- 
cording to mine heart, which shall feed you with 
knowledge and understanding ;" and Mr. Sickles de- 
livered the charge to the people. 

At this time the membership of the church num- 
bered sixty-six ; and for us to fairly appreciate the 
work done during the nineteen years of Mr. Monfort's 
pastorate, we must bear in mind the material and 
moral condition of the county, at the time he came 
ancl during the time he remained. Eleven years have 
now passed away since Campbell and Sells came ; 
eight since King, Covert, McCaslin and Voris built 

cabins in this immediate vicinity, and seven since 
14 



138 



FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH 



King, Young, McCaslin, and the wives of the two 
former united in the organization of the church. 
Settlements had now been made in all parts of the 
county, and all the political townships had been es- 
tablished, except Clarke. The county contained a 
population of four thousand and nineteen, as shown 
by the census made the year before, and it had within 
its borders this year about six hundred legal voters, 
of whom about one hundred and eighty lived within 
Franklin Township. Unfortunately there are no rec- 
ords in existence by means of which we can arrive 
at the population of the town of Franklin at this time, 
but it did not, in all probability, exceed two hundred; 
though this is an estimate based upon unsatisfactory 
data. The people were still without a market in which 
to sell their surplus produce nearer than Madison, on 
the Ohio River, sixty-five miles away. Wheat was 
worth here from twenty -five to thirty-five cents per 
bushel ; corn ten cents, and oats eight. Good work 
horses sold at from thirty-five and forty dollars per 
head to fifty and sixty ; cows at from five to ten dol- 
lars each, while all cotton and imported woolen goods 
and groceries of all kinds cost at least double the 
present prices. Those in the entire county who were 
not compelled to toil for their daily bread and raiment 
you could have counted off on the fingers of your 
right hand. The men tilled the soil during the tilling 
season, and cleared lands for themselves or others 
during the fall and winter seasons, and spent the long 
winter evenings in making and mending shoes for 
their families, or other domestic labor; while the wo- 
men not only looked after the ordinary and daily af- 



OF FRANKLIN, INDIANA. 



139 



fairs of the household, but spun flax, carded and spun 
the wool, and wove linens, flannels and jeans with 
which all were clothed. The statement of these facts 
may at first blush seem to some as irrelevant in a 
discussion like the one in hand; but let me remind 
such, if any there be, that, notwithstanding the hard 
fate of the members of this church at the time of 
which I am speaking, they nevertheless undertook 
the support of their pastor. Up to 1838, Mr. Monfort 
preached for both this and the Hopewell Church, at a 
salary of three hundred dollars per year — a salary so 
small that, were we not to appreciate the impoverished 
condition of the people generally, we would feel com- 
pelled to charge them with having been stingy and 
mean toward their pastor ; but when we remember 
the condition of the country and of the people, in- 
stead of blame, we are bound to give praise. 

In this connection it may not be amiss to tarry a 
moment while we briefly pass under review certain 
congregational habits in vogue during those times. 
Up to about 1840, so far as my memory goes, it was 
the custom in the country congregations for the men 
and women to occupy different seats in the church. 
There was a " men's side" and a " women's side" in 
every meeting-house ; and, while it is probable that the 
modern custom of promiscuous seating -came into 
fashion in this town church sooner than in the country, 
it is nevertheless certain that before and after .Mr. 
Monfort came, the old custom prevailed here. 

On the 18th of June, 1 831, it is recorded that " Wil- 
liam G. Shelleday was elected singing clerk," and 
again on the 28th of March, 1834, Alban Y. Howsly 



140 



FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH 



and Cornelius Hutton were elected to the same 
" office." This is an office which has long been un- 
known in this church, and to many of the younger 
members, doubtless, the name carries with it but an 
imperfect idea of the functions appertaining to it. 
The " singing clerk" was a man of far more conse- 
quence in the old times than your modern leader of 
church music ; indeed, he filled a place only a little 
lower than the minister himself. Occupying a seat 
in front of the high old-fashioned pulpit, it was his 
duty not only to rise up facing the congregation and 
pitch the tune, but to "line out" each hymn as it was 
sung. Hymn books were not so plentiful then as 
now. The poverty of the people made the office of 
" singing clerk" a necessity. 

The custom observed in celebrating the Lord's Sup- 
per differed materially from the custom of the present. 
Long tables were prepared in the aisles of the meet- 
ing-house, covered with snow-white cloths, and the 
communicants, each of whom had been presented by 
the officers of the church with a " token" [pieces of 
lead resembling in shape and size a silver dime, I 
have seen used for this purpose], as a sign of his 
or her right to eat the Supper, took their seats at this 
table of the Lord, and after presenting their " tokens" 
to the office-bearers, partook of the sacramental feast. 

It would certainly prove interesting, if not instruct- 
ive, to pursue this theme at length and in all its bear- 
ings and ramifications did time permit. Great changes 
have taken place in the world of thought during the 
past half century. Men in the search of truth, in the 
domain of the natural sciences as well as in the meta- 



OF FRANKLIN, INDIANA. 



141 



physical, have drifted from point to point until the 
modern view often bears scarcely any resemblance to 
the opinion of fifty years ago. Truth must ever be 
the same, be it scientific, metaphysical or religious ; 
but the intelligent thinker, who has learned to dis- 
trust the infallibility of the human intellect, is ever 
questioning, ever doubting and re-examining; and as 
a necessary consequence old views are ever being 
discarded or modified, and new shades of thought are 
continually intervening. So far as theological ques- 
tions are concerned, this shifting of thought is nec- 
essarily slower and less- marked than in any other de- 
partment of knowledge, save mathematical ; but there 
is, nevertheless, an element of change to be found here. 
Measuring time by the centuries this change is ap- 
parent to the most superficial student of history; but 
taking a measure extending over no more than fifty 
years, the traces of thought-movement are not so 
obvious. Still this increment of time shows a change — 
not a change, mark you, in the leading and funda- 
mental doctrines of the church, but a softening down 
of the tints ; a shading here and a lighting there, until 
the picture — the same in outline and detail as ever 
before — nevertheless presents the old ideas of theo- 
logical truth in the light of an advanced state 'of 
thought. 

I have told you of a pioneer Presbyterian preacher 
who occasionally took his morning dram, and I am 
sure this recital must have excited the surprise of the 
younger members of this congregation, and set them 
to wondering what manner of man he was (unless, 
indeed, a like statement made by Dr. Tuttle, on yes- 



142 



FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH 



terday, had already prepared them for this ) ; but when 
it is remembered that less than fifty years ago Pres- 
byterians very generally did not believe that it was 
morally wrong to drink the social glass, and that some 
of them actually did so drink, I am sure this sur- 
prise and wonder must disappear. Within the mem- 
ory of men still living, Presbyterian elders kept the 
decanter on the sideboard, and furnished whisky freely 
and without price to the electors on the occasion of 
standing for public office. It is due to history, how- 
ever, to say that this never was the rule in this county 
but the exception, and it is believed that no other 
denomination can present a better record. 

Again: Who of the older men and women, who 
are here, have forgotten the loyalty of the people of 
all sects, thirty or forty years ago, to the church of 
their choice ? Why, it once was so rare for a minister 
of one denomination to occupy another's pulpit, that 
when it did happen to occur, it occasioned a " nine 
days' talk." I remember a circumstance which took 
place in this county about thirty years ago, which 
illustrates the sentiment of the times and the feeling 
of the people. It was a bright summer Sunday 
morning, and a little Presbyterian congregation had 
met in the old " hewed log" church to sing and pray, 
and listen to the reading of one of Burder's sermons 
by one of the elders. Pending the preparatory ex- 
ercises, a Methodist circuit-rider rode up with a friend, 
and, dismounting, the people perceived he was coming 
in. The elders, after holding a solemn and hurried 
consultation, came to the conclusion that they would 
forego the safe and orthodox Burder, and risk this, 



OF FRANKLIN, INDIANA. 



143 



to them, ranting disciple of John Wesley; and accord- 
ingly one of their number — good man, he has been 
dead so many years — was sent out with a flag of truce 
to formally invite the Wesleyan in. The preacher, 
who must have been a great wag, was apparently in- 
specting the horses hitched to the trees in the most 
approved jockey style ; and you may better imagine, 
than I can describe, the effect this conduct had upon 
those who formed their opinions of clerical propriety 
from the models furnished by the serious Monfort 
and the solemn Sickles. He came in, however, on 
the invitation ; and, after the introductory services, took 
as his text : " Come unto me all ye that are heavy 
laden, and I will give you rest!' Then, looking straight 
into the solemn faces before him, said, in substance, 
that this was one of his favorite texts, that he had 
preached from it many times before, but had never yet 
succeeded in getting through a sermon without shout- 
ing ; and while he intended to try and remember the 
place and the occasion, and forego shouting this time, 
yet if he failed in his endeavor, he begged his hearers 
would remember that he was only a Methodist cir- 
cuit-rider, and that, as such, he had a right to shout. 
Had a thunder-clap come from the clear sky then, it 
would have occasioned no greater astonishment than 
was now pictured on the faces of that little congre- 
gation ; but the preacher was equal to the emergency. 
Though he made a wonderful noise about it, yet it 
was conceded that his sermon was about as sound as 
one of old George Burder's ; and while the older 
heads may have criticised the arrangement and the 
manner of delivery, the younger took notice that he 



144 



FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH 



used the same texts and preached the same salvation 
that Sickles and Monfort were in the habit of using 
and of preaching. 

Instead of that harmony of feeling among the min- 
isters of the different churches, and that charitable 
co-operation which we now expect as a matter of 
course, then the ministers stood intrenched behind 
the sounding-boards of their own pulpits, either in a 
state of armed neutrality toward each other, or else 
engaged in actual theological conflict. Sometimes 
they met in the hand-to-hand fight of debate ; and if 
I have not been wrongly informed, Dr. Monfort and 
a Baptist minister of this town once tried their skill 
in this arena ; but, most generally, clergymen were 
content with firing at long range from pulpit to pul- 
pit, while the laity, a most willing soldiery, carried on 
a sort of guerrilla warfare from week's end to week's 
end. 

Happily we are beyond these uncharitable years ! 
The wheels of time have carried us out of the gloom 
of that narrow, selfish sectarianism wherein could be 
seen nothing good save in the creed of our own pro- 
fessing; and now, while we may on all convenient 
occasions " earnestly contend for the faith which was 
once delivered to the saints," and which we may hon- 
estly believe to be systematized in our Standards, we 
may, and we do, nevertheless, rejoice in the prosper- 
ity of the church whenever and wherever manifested. 
The vail of the temple of our prejudices has been 
rent in twain from the top to the bottom; the middle 
wall of partition has been broken down, and no longer 
may soldiers of the same great Captain waste their 
strength in contending against each other. 



OF FRANKLIN, INDIANA. 



145 



But a truce to the manners and customs and 
habits of thought of the old times. Let us take up 
the thread of our narrative and briefly note some of 
the results of Mr. Monfort's ministry. We have 
seen that at the close of 183 1, the church numbered 
fifty-five members. In 1832 twelve were added, all 
but two on certificate; in 1833 ten more, six on cer- 
tificate and four on examination, which brings us up to 
1834, when the second revival came with blessings to 
this people. It appears that the good work began the 
last of February, and continued up to the end of 
March, during which time sixteen were added on pro- 
fession of their faith. This year a school-house was 
built on the lot which abuts this one on the east, 
and here the people worshiped until they built a large 
and rather pretentious frame edifice, for the times, on 
this spot in 1837. "It was built by Peter Shuck, at 
a cost of $816, not including the seats and pulpit," 
and " being the first church edifice in town it was 
regarded as a grand affair." 

In the fall of 1838 the pastoral relation between 
Mr. Monfort and Hopewell was dissolved, after which 
he devoted his entire time to this church. At this 
time the following preamble and resolution were adopt- 
ed by the church session, viz : 

" Whereas, By a recent arrangement our pastor is 
to devote his whole time in the Franklin congrega- 
tion; and, 

"Whereas, On special effort being made for the pur- 
pose of his support only three hundred dollars per 
annum has been raised for that end ; and, 

"Whereas, The session believe that on account of 
15 



146 FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH 

the state of their pastor's family, and the present state 
of his own health, not less than five hundred dollars 
per annum are sufficient for his support in this place; 
therefore, 

"Resolved, That our representative to the next Pres- 
bytery be instructed, and he is hereby instructed, to 
lay the case before the Presbytery, for the purpose of 
obtaining their leave to apply to the Board of Mis- 
sions for the additional aid necessary to sustain our 
pastor." 

What relief, if any, was received from the Board 
of Missions I have not been able to learn ; but it is 
certain that the pastor's salary was about this time 
nominally raised to five hundred dollars per year. 

In 1839 a third great awakening took place. From 
the 2 1 st to the 28th days of July, inclusive, eighteen 
converts were admitted. From this on to 1842, yearly 
additions, both on certificate and examination, were 
made, but no special manifestation of God's grace 
appears until January of that year, when from the 5th 
of that month to the 19th of the month following, 
thirty-seven were taken into the church on profession. 
This ingathering brought the membership at the date 
of the Presbyterial report, made in April of the follow- 
ing year, up to one hundred and eighty-seven; but 
from thence on to 185 1, a period of nine years, there 
was a slow but sure decline. New members were 
taken in from time to time, both on certificate and ex- 
amination, but not in numbers large enough to sup- 
ply the waste from dismissions, suspensions and 
deaths. And right here one of the most impressive 
lessons which the history of this church presents 



OF FRANKLIN, INDIANA. 



147 



may be learned. The common experience of man- 
kind, I think, agrees in the observation, that next to a 
family quarrel, a church difficulty excels all others in 
bitterness and virulence. During the years which 
mark the decline of this church under Dr. Monfort's 
pastorate, a bitter and unrelenting personal warfare 
was waged between certain of the members, and while 
I would not utter a single word reflecting upon the 
motives or questioning the Christian integrity of a 
single member of this church living, much less of any 
one dead, yet it is due to history, it is due to you, 
that the fact be stated, that pending this personal war- 
fare between the professed followers of Christ, the 
cause of Christ was seemingly altogether neglected. 
I know nothing of the merits of this controversy; 
I know not who was right and who wrong ; but for an 
examination of the records I would not have known 
of any difficulty at all, and I therefore censure no 
man, no party ; I only note the fact of the dissension. 
No doubt during these gloomy years the pastor 
preached with all the clearness that marked his ser- 
mons of former years ; no doubt his appeals were as 
persuasive and his exhortations as eloquent; no doubt 
sinners felt the[arrows of conviction, but the war with- 
in the camp went furiously on, and inquirers sought 
other folds or turned their backs upon the church for 
ever. All the actors in that whirl of strife are now 
dead save one. Their bodies have returned to the dust 
and their sad difficulties have disappeared with them. 
The merits of their controversy no one now knows 
or cares to know. How insignificant it must have 
been and yet how baleful in its influence upon the 



148 



FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH 



cause of Christianity. Brethren, let us take the lesson 
to our homes. Forever let us sink out of sight and 
memory, every element of controversy, every vestige 
of discord ! 

We now approach the time when Dr. Monfort's 
labors are to come to a close in this church. It is 
the year 1850, and he has been in the field nineteen 
years, eighteen of which have been devoted to pas- 
toral services. And these years have been busy 
stirring years with him, for he has not only preached 
with great regularity here, but he has preached in the 
country wherever there seemed to be any prospect 
whatever of establishing a church, He assisted in 
the organization of Hopewell, of Shiloh, and of Provi- 
dence. But his age and other physical infirmities 
warn him that he must have a rest, and the relation 
between him and this people is accordingly sundered. 
During the years of his preaching here, the record 
shows that two hundred and ninety seven in all unit- 
ed with the church, of whom one hundred and twenty? 
eight were males and one hundred and sixty-nine 
were females. Of the total number which was added 
to the church, one hundred and forty-nine were on 
profession of their faith and one hundred and forty- 
eight on certificate. Of these received on profession, 
sixty-seven were males and eighty-two were females; 
and of those received on certificate, sixty-one were 
males and eighty-seven were females. 

A biographical sketch of Dr. Monfort having been 
prepared by another, I allude to no facts in his his- 
tory not related in some manner to this church. But 
in bidding him farewell, it may not be inappropriate 



OF FRANKLIN, INDIANA. 



149 



to dwell briefly on some of the more salient features 
of his character. He was a man of wide and varied 
learning; so much so, that in a day when Doctorates 
were more stintingly granted than in this, Hanover 
College conferred upon him the merited title of "Doc- 
tor of Divinity." He must have been about forty-five 
years of age when he came here, and was trimly built 
though undersized in person, had dark hair and eyes, 
a narrow high forehead as I remember him, and was ex- 
ceedingly neat in his dress. His manners were en- 
gaging. Whilst always serious, yet he was never 
gloomy and forbidding. He held in scrupulous regard 
all the proprieties and conventionalities of life. "He 
was," says one authority, "a mild, modest, prudent 
man, had a pleasant way in his daily intercourse 
with the people, and wielded a great influence in the 
town." I do not remember to have ever heard any 
anecdote told of him indicating that he had any wit 
or humor, or that even on occasion he exhibited any 
powers of sarcasm. He went through the fight which 
led to the separation of the Church into Old School 
and New School, a recognized leader of the Old 
School party in this Presbytery, and yet I find no 
memory of wounding words ever having been spoken 
by him, lingering in the minds of those who were then 
arrayed against him. He came here at a time when 
his mind was fully developed, and in addition to his 
extensive learning, both literary and theological,, he 
was possessed of a sound and discriminating judg- 
ment. He knew how to gain the good will of men 
and how to hold their esteem. His views of religious 
truth were clear and decided ; and he believed, with 



150 



FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH 



his whole heart and his whole soul, the doctrines and 
tenets of the Presbyterian faith as laid down in her 
Standards; and what he believed, he preached with 
all the might that was in him. He was, in a word, a 
thoroughly conscientious man, speaking boldly for 
the truth and vehemently combating what he deemed 
to be error, on all proper occasions. As a speaker, 
his most marked characteristic was his great clear- 
ness. He not only possessed that incisiveness of mind 
which enabled him to grasp an idea firmly, but he had 
that further and rarer accomplishment, which ena- 
bled him to so present that idea to his hearers strip- 
ped of every superfluous shred of thought, as enabled 
them also to see it and grasp it in its full significance. 
By virtue of this gift he was a teacher of men ; and he 
excelled as a doctrinal preacher. But on occasions 
he preached with great feeling. One says, his man- 
ner of preaching was " deliberate, calm, solemn and 
earnest — sometimes deeply impassioned;" another, 
and a co-laborer in the ministry with him, says he 
was a " solid emphatic speaker, and when aroused 
quite eloquent." 

The close of Dr. Monfort's ministry here may, in 
some respects, be said to mark the line between the 
past and the present in the history of this church. It 
is about that time the people began developing the 
material wealth of the county. Franklin had lately 
been linked with iron to the Ohio River, and a ready 
market had at once been opened for all articles pro- 
duced by the labor of the people. A spirit of enter- 
prise followed ; a plank road was constructed leading 
from this place to White River ; a proposition to build 



OF FRANKLIN, INDIANA. 



151 



a railroad connecting Martinsville with this town was 
agitated and finally consummated, and a general live- 
liness in traffic and trade was exhibited never before 
known. The population of the county was 12,101, 
and the town of Franklin contained 1,057 souls. 
The church numbered one hundred and forty-three 
communicants, a less number than at any period since 
1839, t )Ut tne fi res °f discord had burned out, and 
with the advent of a new .and younger man as pastor, 
it was hoped that the misfortunes of the past would 
be retrieved. Accordingly, a call was made for the 
Rev. Jas. A. McKee, then stationed at Vernon, in this 
State, who accepted and entered upon the discharge 
of his duties at a salary of seven hundred dollars per 
year. Mr. McKee was a Pennsylvanian by birth, but 
had been educated in the collegiate department of 
South Hanover, in this State, and also in the theo- 
logical school which was then located in that place. 

I do not think that the time has yet come when it 
would be profitable or interesting to dwell upon the 
events connected with the pastorate of Mr. McKee 
or of any of his successors. All the ministers, and 
a large majority of the members, are yet living who 
participated in the various scenes enacted in this 
church since 1850, and it would be as a "twice told 
tale," were I to recount these over now. Moreover, 
I have nearly consumed my hour in an endeavor to 
bring to your minds a view of the early history, of 
this church, and the time warns me that I can not 
much longer claim your patience. 

The year following Rev. Mr. McKee's entry upon 
his labors here, the membership of this church went 



152 



FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH 



down to one hundred and fifteen — twenty-nine mem- 
bers having been dismissed and seven having died. 
But in 1852 the gains began to exceed the losses, 
and, with the exception of two years, this has 
been the case ever since. In that year a refreshing 
revival came to bless the labors of the new pastor. 
The good work seems to have commenced in the last 
of February, and it continued up to the middle of 
April, during which interval forty persons in all were 
added on profession of their faith. In the spring 
of the succeeding year another shower came, and 
twenty-five converts were added, which, with the ad- 
ditions of those who joined on certificate, brought 
the membership up to one hundred and eighty-six, 
the highest number then ever reached. In 1854 the • 
number was carried up to one hundred and ninety- 
four; but this increase was mostly due to admissions 
on certificate. 

It is evident to one who peruses the records of this 
date that a church trouble is again brewing. What 
the cause was, I am sure, I don't know. All I can 
say is, that in 1854 only five converts were added; in 
1855, not one ; in 1856, three; and in 1857, not one ! 
Other work seems to have required the attention of 
the people during these gloomy years. The younger 
members of the congregation appear to have been 
seized about this time with a mania for dancing, 
while the older brethren had more serious business 
of their own on hand. A tempest had arisen — a 
controversy was up — a first-class church quarrel was 
on the carpet, and while the brethren were cutting 
and thrusting this way and that way at each other, 



OF FRANKLIN, INDIANA. 



153 



no recruits ventured to come from the enemy with- 
out. How eloquently do these mute figures plead 
for peace within the church ! 

In 1858, the smoke of this conflict having disap- 
peared, God smiled again upon the labors of Mr. 
McKee, and in February, March and April of that 
year, fifty-eight were added on examination. 

In i860, after ten years' service, he resigned his 
charge and was succeeded by the Rev. A. B. Morey. 
The record shows that during these ten years two 
hundred and thirty-eight were admitted to the 
church, of whom one hundred and twelve were males 
and one hundred and sixteen were females. Of the 
whole number one hundred and forty-four were added 
on examination and ninety-four on certificate. 

The Rev. A. B. Morey, a native of New York, 
came fresh from Princeton, within a short time after 
Mr. McKee left, and entered at once upon ministerial 
labors. At this time the communicants- numbered 
one hundred and seventy-two, and when he left, 
eleven years afterward, the number had run up to 
three hundred and seventy-five ; an increase of over 
ten per cent, per annum. The most marked feature 
of his pastorate is the great revival which came to 
this church in 1870. On the 16th of January the 
record shows the admission of five on examination, 
and it goes on showing daily admissions throughout 
January, February and up into March, until One 
hundred names have been entered. During this pas- 
torate three hundred and seventy-four were added to 
the church, of which two hundred and twenty-one 
were on examination and one hundred and fifty-three 
16 



154 



FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH 



on certificate. Of those, on examination, ninety-five 
were males and one hundred and twenty-six were 
females ; while of those, on certificate, sixty-one 
were males and ninety-two were females. 

On Mr. Morey's resignation, the Rev. S. E. Wish- 
ard, our present pastor, was called and came. He is 
a native of this county. His father came into White- 
river Township the year after this church was organ- 
ized, and a few months before the son's birth. At 
the age of twenty-two he began a course of study at 
the Wabash College, where he graduated. His 
theological education was received at Lane Semin- 
aay, after which he went into the State of Michigan, 
where he preached until called to this church in 
1 87 1. He has now been with us nearly three years, 
during which time the membership has increased by 
the addition of one hundred and twenty-five, of 
which fifty have been on examination and seventy- 
four on certificate. 

I have now passed hastily over the fifty years 
which have come and gone since the foundations of 
his church were laid, and I am fully conscious that 
many matters immediately connected with my sub- 
ject have been entirely omitted or passed over with 
the barest mention. The complete history of this 
church during these years would require a volume, 
and its presentation, in an address of reasonable 
length, is therefore out of the question. I have 
already, I fear, trespassed on your patience, but I beg 
your indulgence while we briefly consider some of 
the results of the work which has been done. 

A list of the membership has been prepared, em- 



OF FRANKLIN, INDIANA. 



155 



bracing the names of all found scattered through 
the church books. This list is not absolutely perfect, 
for the books themselves have been somewhat care- 
lessly kept, and an absolutely perfect list is therefore 
out of the question. But it is believed that it ap- 
proximates very nearly to correctness, and it is from 
this that I have made up the statistical reports as to 
the work done during each pastorate. Now, looking 
at the work as a whole, we find that eleven hundred 
in all have been added to this church during its first 
half century. Five hundred and ninety seven, a lit- 
tle over half, has been on examination and five hun- 
dred and one on certificate. Of the entire member- 
ship, four hundred and sixty-seven are males and six 
hundred and thirty-three females. Of the number 
added on examination, the names of two hundred 
and seventy-one are males and three hundred and 
twenty-eight are females ; of those on certificate, one 
hundred and ninety-six are males and three hundred 
and five are females. 

Of the oldest and most numerous families identi- 
fied with the church, the name of Wilson is found 
upon the list, ten times ; the Coverts and Allisons, 
each twelve times ; Shellady, a name now extinct, so 
far as the records show, thirteen times ; Alexander, 
fourteen ; Herriott, fifteen ; Voorheis and Thompson, 
each sixteen times, and the Thompson family has 
likewise disappeared ; Banta, eighteen ; Bergen, twen- 
ty-two ; Adams, twenty-four; and the McCaslin, 
which leads them all, sixty times. 

Six ministers have gone out from this church, five 
of whom began their religious life here. The first is 



156 



FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH 



John C. King, son of George King, one of the found- 
ers of the church, and who united with this congre- 
gation on the 28th of March, 1834, and is now 
preaching in Chase City, Virginia. Then comes the 
name of Anderson Wallace, who joined on the 3d of 
September, 1837, and who is, or was, when I last 
knew of him, performing ministerial duty in Illinois. 
After him we have the name of Samuel E. Barr, 
whose profession took place on the 14th of January, 
1842, and who so lately went from the neighboring 
church of Hopewell to the city of Elkhart, in North- 
ern Indiana ; and his name is followed by that of 
James H. L. Vannuys, who entered the church on 
the 6th of February of the same year, and who is 
now pastor of the church at Goshen, in this State. 
All these were the fruits of Dr. Monfort's ministry. 

Robert M. Overstreet, now preaching at Emporia, 
in the State of Kansas, joined by letter from, the 
church at Bloomington, October 10, 1848, and Syl- 
vester Bergen, who is now preaching at McKinney, 
in the State of Texas, united, on profession of his faith, 
on the fourth day of January, 1863. 

These are some of the numerical results, but who 
can calculate the moral ? The Presbyterian faith de- 
mands an unqualified belief in the divine authenticity 
of the Holy Scriptures, in the sovereignty of God, 
and the absolute subordination of man to his author- 
ity. This faith, as interpreted by our fathers, held 
them to a strict accountability, morally speaking, 
for the manner in which they trained their children ; 
and they not only taught their children obedience to 
parental authority, in accordance with the divine 



OF FRANKLIN, INDIANA. 



157 



command, but tutored them carefully in all the funda- 
mental doctrines of their own faith. Trained then, to 
fear God and to keep his commandments, and trained 
to habits of obedience to human government from 
infancy up, the young man when he left the roof- 
tree, went forth prepared to yield that willing obedi- 
ence to the laws of the land, which is the distin- 
guishing characteristic of every good citizen. He 
may not have been the most noisy citizen ; he may not 
have been the most forward with advice on public 
occasions ; he may not even have aspired to public 
place ; but he was nevertheless a law-abiding citizen, 
and the State was seldom, if ever, called upon to vin- 
dicate her laws in his punishment. The same records 
which bear testimony to that spirit of lawless vin- 
dictiveness which prevailed so extensively in this 
county from its organization up to about 1840, and 
which has been elsewhere alluded to, bear ample tes- 
timony to his good character for peace and submis- 
siveness to the laws of the land. I do not wish to be 
understood as magnifying one faith at the expense of 
another, or of making invidious comparisons between 
the Presbyterian Church and others ; I trust we are 
all too thoroughly imbued with the charity which 
thinketh no evil for that, but I will say, and that with- 
out fear of successful contradiction, that Presbyte- 
rianism, in Johnson County, has proven in the past, 
pre eminently successful as a school for the training 
of the highest ordei of citizenship. 

Just how much has been achieved by this particular 
church in that school, the human intellect is inade- 
quate to the task of measuring ; Omniscience alone 
17 



158 



FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH 



can do that ; but if we can not apply the measure, 
the results are yet so certain that the Christian and 
the patriot, of whatever faith or belief, may on this 
the fiftieth anniversary of the foundation of the 
Church of Franklin, join in the prayer : Let it be 
perpetuated ! 



BY 

Rev. J, G. Monfort, D. D. 



My part in the services of this day will be first to 
give a statement of the ecclesiastical relations of this 
church, and then a memorial of its first pastor, Rev. 
David Monfort, D. D. 

The church of Franklin, which was organized in 
1824, first belonged to the Presbytery of Salem and 
to the Synod of Kentucky. The Salem Presbytery 
was constituted in October, 1823, one year before the 
organization of the Franklin Church. 

In 1825 the Synod of Kentucky organized the 
Presbyteries of Madison and Wabash, and Franklin 
Church was then connected with Wabash Presbytery, 
and these three Presbyteries were erected into the 
Synod of Indiana, in May, 1826. In 1829 Crawfords- 
ville was formed, and Franklin was connected with 
it. In 1830 the name Wabash was changed to Vin- 
cennes, and the Presbytery of Crawfordsville was di- 
vided ; the Presbytery of Indianapolis was formed, 

(159) 



160 



FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH 



and Franklin was put in it, and has been ever since 
connected with it. 

David Monfort was the son of Lawrence Monfort 
and Elizabeth Cassat. He was born in York County, 
now Adams County, Pennsylvania, March 7, 1790. 
His ancestors were Huguenots, who fled from France 
to Holland, upon the revocation of the Edict of Nan- 
tes. They came to this country in 1629, and settled 
first in Beaver Street, New York City ; then in Long 
Island, and then in New Jersey, and again in Penn- 
sylvania; and about the beginning of this century in 
Mercer and Henry Counties, Kentucky, and some in 
the Miami Country, in Ohio. The early members of 
the Presbyterian Church in Johnson County, Indiana, 
were most of them the same Hollandish Protestant 
Presbyterians. In tracing the genealogy of the 
family for nearly two hundred and fifty years, in the 
records of the Dutch Churches in this country, I find 
in marriage and baptismal records that such names 
as Monfort, Aten, Bergen, Seburn, Demaree, Van- 
nuys, Conover, Brewer, Vanausdol, Bonte, Pieterson, 
Brinkerhoff, Voris, Van Dyne, Van Dyke, and sev- 
eral others, seem to have been of one blood by in- 
termarriages ; and to a remarkable extent, until after 
the beginning of this century, they were farmers. 
Even fifty years ago very few of the names men- 
tioned were to be found among ministers or other 
professional men. 

David Monfort lived with his parents on a farm in 
Warren County, Ohio, until he passed his minority. 
When seventeen years of age he was converted, and 
made a public profession of religion in connection 



OP FRANKLIN, INDIANA. 



161 



with the great New Light Revival. He soon joined 
the Presbyterian Church, and turned his attention to 
the ministry. He first studied privately under Rev. 
Richard McNemar, near his home, and with John 
Thomson, at Springfield, now Springdale, near Cin- 
cinnati. He completed his literary course in Trans- 
sylvania University, Lexington, Kentucky, and his 
course in theology at Princeton, New Jersey, graduat- 
ing in 1817. He was licensed by the Presbytery of 
Miami, at Lebanon, April 4, 18 17. A part of the 
record of Presbytery, in his case, reads : " Mr. David 
Monfort, candidate, was directed to deliver his pop- 
ular discourse this evening in the court-house by 
candle-light." 

He supplied, after his licensure, Bethel Church, 
west and south of Hamilton and Oxford, on Indian 
Creek, for a few months, received a call as pastor, and 
was ordained and installed October 20, the same 
year — 18 17. The members present were Matthew 
G. Wallace , Dyer Burgess, Daniel Haydon and Wil- 
liam Gray. 

This pastoral relation lasted ten years and was 
most happy and useful. The pastor was physically 
sound, very active, a man of very fine appearance, a 
good student, an attractive writer and speaker, fluent 
and impressive, and withal a great attraction as a 
singer. In ten years his church from being very 
small grew to number one hundred and eighty-seven 
communicants, and it was the largest in the State of 
Ohio, except the First Church, Cincinnati, which had 
two hundred and seventeen members, and Beech 
Spring, near Steubenville, two hundred and thirty- 



162 



FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH 



three. He, moreover, preached regularly at many 
destitute points and laid the foundation of many 
churches, since prosperous, of which may be named 
Lawrenceburg, Harrison, Elizabethtown, Brookville, 
Berea, Mt. Carmel, Dunlapville, Bath and Conners- 
ville. 

He asked to be relieved of this charge, against the 
wishes of the whole church, except a family or two 
that were disaffected on account of a case of disci- 
pline. 

In 1828 he went to Terre Haute and remained less 
than two years. These were years of suffering, sor- 
row and death. He lost his wife and a daughter, and 
was himself visited with severe and protracted sick- 
ness, followed by chronic weakness and suffering, 
which made him lame and an invalid for life. 

He returned to Ohio in 1829, and after one year 
of missionary work in Wilmington and vicinity, he 
came to Indiana and began his work in Johnson 
County. He was in feeble health and poorly fitted 
for the hardships of pioneer missionary life, and yet 
he did the labor of a man of vigorous health, and 
his work was followed by the divine blessing. 

In coming to Franklin severe trials and sufferings 
awaited him. Eleven days after his arrival, his wife, 
whom he married but a few months before, was en- 
gaged adjusting a box of clothing and was suddenly 
seized with smothering and weakness. She was laid 
on a bed, and, recovering a little, said to her hus- 
band, " Is this death?" He said, " Oh, no! you will 
soon get over it." She said, " Have I been a good 
wife to you ?" He said, u You have, indeed." She 



OF FRANKLIN, INDIANA. 



163 



continued, " Have I been a good mother to your 
children ?" He replied, " You have been a good 
mother to the children." She said, " Then I am con- 
tent." And at once she ceased to breathe. 

His work in Franklin began in bodily feebleness 
and with this sudden baptism of bereavement and 
sorrow, and when it closed he could look back and 
say : " I was with you in weakness, in fear, and in 
much trembling." He never had an hour of good 
health and freedom from pain to the end of his life, 
and yet he continued to do full work. He could not 
get on his horse without help, and for some years 
there were no roads in some directions for carriages. 

The statistics of his labors I leave for others who 
have had access to the church records. All who 
knew him and his work will respond to the declara- 
tion : " He was a good man, and full of the Holy 
Ghost and of faith: and much people was added unto 
the Lord." 

He left Franklin in 1850, after nineteen years' min- 
sterial labor, and though he often preached, he had 
no regular charge. He lived for a time at Kingston* 
Indiana ; Decatur, Illinois, and at last at McComb, 
Illinois, where he died in i860. 

He was highly endowed by nature, and, in the line 
of his profession, by culture. He was a good scholar 
in Latin, Greek and Hebrew, and was well read in 
didactic and historical theology. He was a "constant 
student of the Scriptures in the original tongues. For 
the first twenty-five years of his ministry he had con- 
stantly under his tuition students preparing for the 
ministry. His discourses always gave evidence of 



164 



FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH 



thorough preparation" and of logical ability, while 
they were clothed in the excellencies of rhetorical 
statement, and delivered with the force of the skillful 
orator. He was thoroughly versed in our ecclesias- 
tical jurisprudence. He always took an active part 
in our church judicatories, and his opinions as to 
principles and precedents had almost the force of 
law, especially with ruling elders and young ministers. 

He was thrice married. His first wife was Phebe 
Spining, daughter of Judge Isaac Spining, of Dayton, 
Ohio. She died at Terre Haute in 1829. She was 
a woman of ardent piety, meek, loving and faithful. 
The surviving children of this marriage are Elizabeth, 
wife of Rev. John C King, Isaac Pierson Monfort, 
and Lawrence Monfort — all known to most persons 
present. 

His second wife was Rhoda Halsey, of Lebanon, 
Ohio, who died immediately after his removal to this 
place. She was a noble Christian woman. 

His third wife, Ann Ray, of Indianapolis, still sur- 
vives him and lives with her daughter Mary, wife of 
Rev. R. M. Roberts, at Pana, Illinois. Three other 
children of this marriage survive, John, Andrew and 
Phebe, while another, Rev. Cornelius V. Monfort, 
died not long ago. This wife was the chief blessing 
of his life. She was a true and beloved mother of 
his children, a companion worthy of him, a wise and 
prudent adviser, full of sympathy and self-sacrifice, 
and, withal, a Christian of symmetrical character and 
devoted piety. 



HISTORY OF THE SABBATH SCHOOL 



OF THE 

FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH 

OF 

j^RANKLIN, jNDIANA. 

BY THE PASTOR, 

S, IE. WISHARD. 



HISTORY OF THE PRESBYTERIAN SABBATH- 
SCHOOL OF FRANKLIN. 



In the autumn of 1826, about two years after the or- 
ganization of the Presbyterian Church in Franklin, a 
union Sabbath-school was organized by Rev. Samuel 
Gregg. Mr. Samuel Herriott, one of the pioneer set- 
tlers, and first clerk of the county, was unanimously 
chosen superintendent. But as Mr, Herriott was not 
a professor of religion, he declined to act, stating that 
"he was not a praying man," and suggesting to the 
friends of the new enterprise that a superintendent 
should be able to open the school with prayer. It 
was urged that he could secure the services of some 
one else for this important part of the work. Mr. 
Herriott, however, was not a man to undertake a work 
in which he must lean upon some one else. Hence 
he could not be prevailed upon to yield his judgment 
in the case, and accept the office tendered him. 

Mr. D. Wassen McCaslin, one of the original five 
members that entered into the organization of the 
Presbyterian Church, and one of the first two elders 
of the church, was then chosen as superintendent, 
and Mr. Wm. Robinson, a Methodist, was also chosen 
as co-superintendent. 

This organization took place in the woods less than 
(167) 



168 



FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH 



a hundred yards northeast of where the Presbyterian 
Church now stands. 

Three of the teachers in that school are yet living, 
and one of them is still a member of this church, 
enjoying with us the delightful services of this semi- 
centennial commemoration. She goes and returns 
to the house of God with us on the Sabbath, and was 
with us in the Sabbath-school yesterday — Mrs. Lydia 
Herriott. She is president of the Woman's Mission- 
ary Society, at Edinburg; goes and returns to their 
regular monthly meetings. 

The other two persons are Jefferson D. Jones, an 
official member of the Christian Church of this city, 
and Joseph Young, now of Vinton, Iowa, and a mem- 
ber of the Presbyterian Church of that young city. 
Mrs. Herriott says, " Mr. McCaslin was a good citizen, 
a Christian man, and one who would build and uphold 
the church and sustain his minister." He had proved 
himself an earnest Christian, and continued a faithful 
worker while his life was spared to the church. Dur- 
ing his superintendence the school was held in the 
old log court-house. The house was two stories high, 
of hewed logs, with a stairway at the back end of the 
house. The upper part of the house was occupied 
for legal and religious purposes ; hence the church 
and Sunday-school in the wilderness began their im- 
portant work, as did the Apostolic Church, in an upper 
room. 

To give a better conception of the material of which 
that first school was composed, it will be in place to 
say a word or two of these individuals. 

Mrs. Herriott was then in the vigor of life. With 



OF FRANKLIN, INDIANA. 



169 



her husband she came to the banks of Sugar Creek, 
in 1 82 1, before the county was organized. After two 
or three years they removed to the south side of a 
large fallen tree, lying on Mr. Thos. Jeffery's present 
premises. Their meat-house in one end of a sack, 
and buttery in the other end, were balanced in the 
crotch of a tree, until a log cabin was extemporized. 
Mrs. Herriott then, to further her husband's financial 
matters, took the journey on horseback — and alone — 
to Mansfield, Ohio, passing through Connersville, 
Dayton and Springfield. After a seven days' ride she 
reached her destination, accomplished her purpose, 
and returned again, carrying with her two or three 
hundred dollars in silver. Her sister accompanied 
her on her return trip. The money was safely turned 
over to its destination, and she was ready for the do- 
mestic duties of her cabin. 

Mr. Jones had come by a long tedious journey 
through the woods from Mercer County, Kentucky. 
Though the State road had been opened, the logs were 
not taken out of the highway, and immigrants were 
often obliged to take to the woods, only keeping in 
sight of the road so as not to lose the way. He made 
a profession of religion soon after coming to the county 
(which was not then a county), and with all the zeal 
of his first love entered into the Sunday-school work. 

Mr. Young was a man in keeping with the times — 
young, active, ardent, conscientious, willing to make 
sacrifices. Though of a very genial temper, and 
capable of enjoying the humors of the day, his life 
was consistent with his profession, and made him a 
valuable acquisition to the new settlement. Es- 



170 



FIRST PRESBYTER! A.N CHURCH 



pecially was his coming helpful to the moral tone of 
society. 

While Mr. McCaslin had the management of the 
school, the first Sunday-school celebration occurred. 
It was on the 4th of July, 1828 or 1829. Col. Covert 
and John Foster acted as marshals. Lewis Hen- 
dricks had charge of the music for the occasion, Mrs. 
Lydia Herriott assisting. After marching eastward 
on Jefferson Street some distance, the procession re- 
turned to the court-house, and sang the hymn, " Our 
souls by love together knit," etc. It was then ascer- 
tained that Rev. James Havens, a pioneer Methodist 
preacher, was at the hotel, where Wood's drug store 
now stands. Col. Covert was deputized as a commit- 
tee to wait upon Mr. Havens, and request him to come 
over and address the school. To this request Mr. 
Havens sternly answered " No," adding that " the 
Presbyterians, he feared, would be greatly in his way 
in this region." The negotiations ceased, the report 
was made to the waiting audience, whereupon the 
people were dismissed, having accomplished every- 
thing in the way of a celebration except the speech. 

At the death of Mr. Wassen McCaslin, which oc- 
curred June 17, 1830, the Sabbath-school almost died 
out. It is to be remembered that the Sabbath-school 
work was then just taking hold upon the people. It 
was as yet scarcely more than an experiment in the 
large cities of the East, and in this wilderness was 
but an infant of the smallest proportions ; hence the 
risk to the cause by the loss of but one worker. 

This decline of the Sunday-school work, however, 
was of short duration. Rev. Samuel Hardin, agent of 



OF FRANKLIN, INDIANA. 



171 



the American Sunday-school Union, which had been 
founded in 1824, only six years before, reorganized 
the school with fifty scholars, and Jefferson D. Jones 
as superintendent. This organization began its work 
in what was then called the new court-house. It was 
successfully carried forward in its legitimate work, 
until it numbered as many as seventy-five scholars. 

Among the teachers of that time were Joseph 
Young, Samuel Ritchey, Wassen King, Lydia Her- 
riott, Andrew Vanoy, an earnest Baptist layman, who 
is still living (or was recently), near Bloomington, 
Indiana. 

The school was still carried forward as a union 
school, until near the close of the year 1832, after 
Dr. Monfort began his labors with the church (sum- 
mer of 1830). 

It finally occurred that one of the Presbyterian citi- 
zens (Ephraim Herriott) desired to introduce the 
Shorter Catechism into the Sabbath-school. It is 
commonly reported that Mr. Jones, the superintend- 
ent, replied, that " nothing but the Bible could be 
taught in that school." Dr. Monfort gave notice on 
the next Sabbath that a Presbyterian Sabbath-school 
would be organized on that afternoon. It was thought 
by many that the movement was unfortunate. How- 
ever, Dr. Monfort generally kept his appointments, 
and the Presbyterian Sabbath-school was organized. 
Hence, as a distinct Presbyterian Sabbath-school, our 
existence dates from 1832, near the close of the year. 

Cornelius Hutton, who became a ruling elder in 
the church, was chosen first superintendent of the 
Presbyterian Sabbath-school, and served probably two 



172 



FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH 



years. He was in sympathy with the movement, and 
gave his influence to make it successful. It was 
thought necessary in those days to have enough or- 
ganization in connection with the school to give it 
character. Hence a board of managers was chosen 
from the officers or substantial members of the church. 
The province of this board was not clearly denned, 
but it is within the memory of a few present to-day 
that, as managers, they managed to stay away from 
the Sabbath-school, and, as the manner of some is to 
this day, to let it severely alone. 

The Sabbath-school was not kept up during the 
winter. This had been true from the first school 
which Elder McCaslin superintended. A Bible-class, 
however, was sustained during the winter, which the 
older people and young men and women attended. 
In the spring again the children were gathered, and 
the school took on its usual summer growth. 

Mr. William Shellady was chosen to succeed Mr. 
Hutton as superintendent. Mr. Shellady was a school- 
teacher by profession, an earnest Christian man, in- 
telligent for the times. He labored for the school as 
his feeble health and limited strength would permit. 
Mr. Abdella Thompson succeeded him as superin- 
tendent, and he again was followed by Mr. Alexander 
Wilson, now a resident of this county, in Clark Town- 
ship. 

In the spring of 1838 John C. King, who was then 
studying for the ministry, was chosen to the office of 
superintendent. At this time the school assumed 
a new interest. Mr. King was young, energetic, ear- 
nest, and gathered about him the workers of the 



OF FRANKLIN, INDIANA. 178 

school. They introduced the novel experiment (?) of 
electing the board of managers from the number of 
those who were interested workers in the school. 
It was an innovation, and was attended with one risk, 
viz: that of making the school successful. However, 
the risk was taken, and the thing realized. The 
managers were chosen from the teachers. The young 
men who gathered about their superintendent, and 
helped sustain a teacher's or young people's prayer- 
meeting were Harry and Watson Shellady, John H. 
and Cornelius Vannuys, Allen and Harvey McCas- 
lin, Anderson D. Wallace, Abram Bergen and I. Pear- 
son Monfort. Mr. King continued his work until 
1 841, when Mr. Hutton was again chosen to fill the 
place. It is thought tha'. he continued to serve until 
1844. But, on account of certain difficulties which 
had arisen in the church, he resigned his position, 
and Abram Bergen was appointed to fill his place 
until the year expired. 

Mr. Bergen was inexperienced as superintendent; 
felt himself entirely incompetent to lead or direct a 
Sabbath-school. He experienced great embarrass- 
ment because of his limited education, but with 
several young men of the church he had set his face 
in the direction of work. And now that the call 
came he did not venture to refuse. He accepted the 
responsibility and gave his best services, feeling, as 
he says, that " something could be accomplished be- 
cause the teachers knew so much more than he." 

At the expiration of the year, Mr. Harvey Sloan 
of beloved memory, was chosen to the work of super- 
intending the school. He had not only been a faith- 
18 



174 



FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH 



ful laborer as a teacher from the first day of coming 
to Franklin, in 1835, but there was a desire on the 
part of his associates to give him a special indorse- 
ment in view of some question which had arisen in 
the church. 

Mr. Sloan, though older than many of his co-labor- 
ers in the Sabbath-school work, was yet a man of 
very marked humility; a man who made himself a 
companion of children, and especially of the younger 
men who were trying to serve the Master. He emi- 
nently, fulfilled the requirement of the Savior, who 
said, " Except ye be converted, and become as little 
children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven." 
As a little child, though a man in years and in 
Christian experience, he went about his work and 
completed the time for which he was chosen. 

Mr. John H. Vannuys, who, with his father and 
family, had come to Franklin on October I, 1836, 
and who had been connected with the church and 
school as teacher and worker since his arrival, was 
elected superintendent. It is thought he succeeded 
Mr. Sloan in 1845 or 1846. The teachers associated 
with Mr. Vannuys were Mrs. Elizabeth King, wife of 
John King and daughter of Dr. Monfort, Cornelius 
Vannuys, Allen McCaslin, Geo. Bergen, and others. 
Geo. Bergen at that time taught a class of little boys. 

It would be exceedingly interesting to call the roll 
of the Sabbath-school of those days. But the loss of 
all the records of that time renders it impossible. It 
is not so much as known who the secretary of the 
school was. It is thought, however, by those who 



OF FRANKLIN, INDIANA. 



175 



were engaged in the work then, that the school num- 
bered a hundred scholars or more. 

Mr. Vannuys removed to Hopewell. Who his 
successor was history does not inform us. I have 
been unable to trace the line of superintendents for 
several years after Mr. Vannuys. 

In 1854, Gabriel Overstreet, Sen., united with the 
church, and during the next year was chosen super- 
intendent. He probably served two years. Though 
he pronounces himself a failure as a superintendent, 
the Sabbath-school was at that time larger, number- 
ing, it is thought, almost two hundred. 

Mr. Wm. McCaslin and Mr. Hampton Terrell both 
served as superintendents, but the order of their ser- 
vice does not appear from any known data at present. 
Mr. McCaslin, who had resided in the country, re- 
moved to town in 185 1, and had a share in the work 
of the school until 1862. During this time he aided 
in the music of the Sabbath-school and superintended 
two years or more. There were associated with him 
as teachers Mr. and Mrs. McKee, the pastor and his 
wife, M. Hilman Waters, Mr. Ephraim Jeffery and 
Mrs. JefTery, and others. 

Mr. Terrell came to this county in the fall of 1849, 
and united with the church on the 30th of December 
of that year. Two years later he was elected deacon, 
and served as such until he was elected elder in 1856. 

From his first connection with the church he was 
active and useful, an earnest, growing man. Though 
residing out of Franklin, he accepted the work to 
which he was chosen as superintendent, and gave 
himself assiduously to the duties of his position. No 



176 



FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH 



written records of the school at that time are to be 
found. 

Mr. John McKeehan succeeded Mr. Terrell, or at 
least became superintendent after Mr. McCaslin and 
Mr. Terrell. 

When Mr. Morey became pastor of the church 
Mr. McKeehan was officer-in-chief of the school. 
This position he held for a year or two, when Mr. 
Morey was chosen to fill his place, and continued as 
superintendent until the close of his ministry in April, 
1871. 

Very considerable changes had marked the meth- 
ods of Sabbath-school work throughout the country, 
between 1830 and the time at which Mr. Morey took 
the school. The old Sabbath-school Union Hymn 
Book, of cold and cheerless memory, had performed 
its doleful work and retired. The idea of adapting 
hymns to children, and music to hymns, began to 
make itself felt, not always to edification, indeed, 
yet still in the line of progress. Lucius Heart, of 
New York City, was beginning to pioneer this new 
and important enterprise. The little penny singing 
books, with their two dozen hymns and tunes, were 
multiplying. Children were beginning to sing — not 
always the best of hymns, or music either, but the 
Sabbath-school song had at last commenced. It 
brought consternation to some ministers and elders, 
who had dwelt for a long time on long meters and 
orthodox hymns, full of profound and compound the- 
ology. Still the melody of this new Sabbath-school 
thought could not be suppressed. It rose and filled 
all the air. It was called " twaddle," and some of the 



OF FRANKLIN, INDIANA. 



177 



hymns were nothing more. Grave men were uneasy. 
They had forgotten all the processes of a true growth, 
or had not discoursed Darwin's law of " The Survival 
of the Fittest." 

Some things were discovered also concerning the 
Sabbath-school library. It came to be known that it 
was not treason to Christ or the Church to pick up a 
good book wherever it was found, even if it was 
born outside of the Presbyterian Publishing House. 
It was discovered also that it was not profaning our 
work to hang up an outline map in the Sabbath- 
school room. Blackboards grew apace, chalk began 
to be useful, publishers began to understand that 
there was money in the best Sabbath-school music, 
the best books, and all Sabbath-school appliances, so 
" The earth helped the woman." 

Some of us who were in other fields of labor at 
that time remember that good men stoutly protested 
against "the earth helping the woman." But it did 
not matter. The Sabbath school was coming up from 
the old mud roads to the iron rails. Of course there 
would be some accidents — a broken rail, a misplaced 
switch, an inexperienced engineer, would furnish the 
world a catastrophe occasionally, and furnish an ec- 
clesiastical body an opportunity to publish warnings, 
and pass equivocal resolutions. Still there was not 
much disposition on the part of the most cautious to 
go back to the old mud wagons. The most careful 
men would buy a ticket, board the train, and, holding 
fast to their baggage, make the experiment. 

Such was the state of Sabbath-school progress when 
Mr. Morey became superintendent of the Sabbath- 



178 



FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH 



school. Assisted from time to time by A. Bergen, 
W. A. Davis, R. V. Ditmars, and teachers, some of 
whom are yet on the ground, he prosecuted his work. 
It was during his work as superintendent that the in- 
fant class became an institution. The school was 
held in the afternoon, but an infant class, taught by 
Miss Nancy McCollough (now Mrs. Mears), was con- 
vened in the morning. 

In the summer of 1861 Mrs. Morey took charge 
of the infant class, holding it in the afternoon in con- 
nection with the Sabbath-school. It first numbered 
only six scholars, but grew until about eighty were 
in attendance. 

The accessions to the church were frequent from 
the Sabbath -school, and it is mentioned that several 
came from the infant class. 

Revivals of religion began almost always in the 
Sabbath-school, with perhaps the exception of the 
large ingathering, which began among the adults of 
the congregation. The result is that there is scarcely 
a church that has so large a proportion of the young 
people and children in connection with it. The at- 
tendance of the Sabbath-school grew during the nine 
or ten years that Mr. Morey superintended. At the 
close of his pastorate Mr. R. V. Ditmars, who was 
assistant, took charge of the school until the close of 
the year 187 1, when he was elected superintendent 
for the year 1872, with Mr. George Voris assistant. 
For the year 1873 Mr. George Voris was chosen 
superintendent. He was succeeded by Prof. E. W. 
Thompson, who served until his removal to Indian- 
apolis, Junius Bice assisting. Prof. Thompson's re- 



OF FRANKLIN, INDIANA. 



179 



moval resulted in the recall of Mr. Voris to the po- 
sition of superintendent, where he remains to-day. 

After Mrs. Morey's removal to Cincinnati, Miss 
Maggie J. Donnell, now Mrs. Burt, took charge of 
the infant class, and continued her work until her re- 
moval to Indianapolis, when, on motion of Father 
Sloan, the teachers requested the present pastor of 
the church to undertake this work, who is still the 
teacher. 

Some of the present teachers have been long con- 
nected with the Sabbath-school, viz : S. C. Dunn, 
Abram Bergen, R. V. Ditmars, our present super- 
intendent, George W. Voris. The records of the 
past two or three years show the names, as officers 
or workers, of Ditmars, Voris, McCollough, Young, 
Allison, Sloan, Mrs. Mary Voris, William P. Todd, 
John P. Henderson, Harvey Voris, Samuel C. Dunn, 
Mrs. Josie Taylor, Mrs. Maria Smiley, Dr. J. O. Mar- 
tin, Abram Bergen, Mrs. George F. Herriott, Miss 
Nannie Herriott, B. R. Perkins, Mrs. Maggie McCas- 
lin, Mrs. M. J. Halstead, Miss Tillie Brewer, Miss 
Susie Barker, Prof. E. W. Thompson and Mrs. Thomp- 
son, Mrs. Ditmars, Miss Maggie Donnell and S. E. 
Wishard. 

This very brief history — which indeed is scarcely 
more than a thread connecting the past with the pres- 
ent — has some very instructive lessons. 

I. The men and women who have continued in 
the Sabbath-school are the growing souls of the 
church. Their Sabbath-school labor has better quali- 
fied them for labor in other departments of church 
work. They are the men and women who sustain 



180 



FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH 



the prayer- meetings of the church, who first "hear 
the sound of a going in the tops of the mulberry- 
trees/' when the Lord goes forth to battle for his 
people. 

2. The economy of church resources is here seen 
in bringing the little ones to Christ, and putting them 
forever on the side of God and all moral good. 

3. That all excuses for not engaging in the Sab- 
bath-school work, except absolute physical inability, 
are groundless. For a ripe old age has retained in 
this, our Sabbath-school, all the freshness of soul, 
which belongs to the morning of life. Those who 
have supposed themselves incompetent have largely 
contributed to the education of others as well as 
themselves. 

We have every grade of mind and capacity in our 
Sabbath-school work, a place for every soul that has 
loved Christ, and a growth for every one who will 
accept the conditions of growth, toil and prayer. 

The history of the Sabbath-school shows that while 
our church-membership has greatly enlarged, number- 
ing now almost four hundred, the number of our 
Sabbath-school scholars has not proportionally in- 
creased. This results from two causes: First, our 
church-membership has embraced a large portion of 
our Sabbath-school, and, while increasing, the mem- 
bership of the church has not multiplied our number 
in the Sabbath-school. 

Secondly, many older members of the church have 
all their lives refused to become members of the 
Sabbath-school. Hence, our church-membership is 
about double our number in the Sabbath-school. 



OF FRANKLIN, INDIANA. 



181 



Thus closes the history of the Sunday-school work 
of this church for a half century. To-day we enter 
the unknown but hopeful future of the next half 
century, and, with the prayer that God will give us, 
as his children, adequate conceptions of the possibili- 
ties which lie before the church in the next fifty years, 
we joyfully accept the toil and privileges of the future. 

19 



REMINISCENCE MEETING 



ON THE AFTEBNOON OF 



Monday, November SO, 1874. 



KEMINISCENCE MEETING. 



At 2:30 P. M. the congregation came together for 
the reunion or reminiscence meeting. The anthem, 
" Praise ye the Lord," was sung and prayer was 
offered. 

Isaac Pierson Monfort was called forward and pre- 
sented some 

Recollections of his Father's Life in the 
Ministry. 

With so short notice, and the peculiarly solemn 
circumstances under which I find myself placed on 
this fiftieth anniversary day, and with overflowing 
feelings in the recollections of bygone days crowd- 
ing thick and fast upon me, I fear the task assigned 
me to-day will be but poorly performed. 

Not to make the story of my father's life too 
long, I am at a loss just where to commence. Many 
recollections of deepest interest to me, to you may 
be uninteresting. Please bear with me, then, as I give 
utterance to the memories of the past as they may 
present themselves to my mind. I well remember 
the deep impression made upon my mind when seven 
years of age, by father's farewell sermon on leaving 
Bethel Church, near Millville, Ohio. His text was 

(185) 



186 



FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH 



from I Corinthians ii. 3 : "And I was with you in 
weakness, and in fear, and in much trembling." The 
severing of the ties which bound pastor and people 
together in this his first charge of ten years' duration 
was deeply affecting, and father often spoke of this 
change as the great mistake of his ministerial life. 

From Millville we removed to Oxford, Ohio, where 
we remained about one year, and then to Terre 
Haute, Indiana, a distance of one hundred and sixty 
miles, through an almost unbroken "forest. Father, 
mother and the two youngest children rode in a one- 
horse dearborne, as such conveyances were then 
called, and my sister (now Mrs. J. C. King) and my- 
self rode alternately in the carriage or ox-wagon, or 
walked, as circumstances required. In passing over 
the same region of country within a few years past, 
the change to me seems truly wonderful ; and it also 
appears strange how ministers then could endure the 
exposure and fatigue necessary in the performance of 
their ministerial functions. I think we left Oxford 
on Monday morning, and after a hard week's travel, 
all weary and worn, late on Saturday night, we 
reached the place near which now stands the village 
of Pleasant View, in Shelby County, Indiana, expect- 
ing to remain until Monday morning. But for some 
reason, best known to himself, on Sabbath morning 
the landlord informed father that he could not keep 
us till Monday morning, and he could not be induced 
to reverse his decision. So the parson and his family 
were forced to proceed on their journey, Sabbath as 
it was. The distance to Indianapolis being only 
about thirteen miles, father thought we might reach 



OF FRANKLIN, INDIANA. 



187 



there at least for the evening service; but when 
within about six miles of the Capital, and a mile or 
two from a habitation, we were swamped in theinid- 
dle of a deep mud-hole or pond. Leaving mother 
and the two little ones in the carriage, after a long 
walk father found the cabin formerly known as Bell's 
Tavern, on the old Michigan road. Mr. Bell very- 
kindly brought a team and soon drew us out of the 
mud and gave us a comfortable room in one end of 
his double cabin, where we remained until Monday 
morning. One thing I well remember while stop- 
ping at Mr. Bell's, which I must relate. On Sabbath 
afternoon several hunters came in, bringing with 
them an owl and some venison which they had just 
killed. Our landlord very kindly gave us some of 
the nice venison, and conscientious scruples of father 
and mother to the contrary, notwithstanding, as the 
least of two evils you know, mother prepared it and it 
was truly delicious, especially to us children. Leaving 
Mr. Bell's next morning, we passed on to Indianapolis, 
then a village of perhaps eight or ten hundred inhabit- 
ants, where we were kindly entertained at the house 
of Caleb Scudder, Esq. My impression is that there 
was then no church building, as father preached that 
night in Mr. Scudder's cabinet shop. After a night's 
rest we started again on our journey westward. The 
roads were in a terrible condition and the settlements 
far apart. 

I well remember our stop at Stiles' Tavern (now 
Stilesville). The accommodations being very poor, 
and exposure being consequent, mother caught a 



188 



FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH 



severe cold, which brought on the disease (consump- 
tion) which caused her death within one year. 

We were well supplied with meat, while at Stiles', 
from a pigeon-roost, where great numbers could be 
captured at night with torches. I do not mention 
this with any desire to go from the sublime to the 
ridiculous, but as an evidence that even in early times 
ministers and their families could enjoy the luxury of 
a good " pot-pie." 

Passing on from Stiles' through the then almost 
uninhabited forest, on Saturday evening of the 
second week we arrived at Otter Creek Prairie, within 
six miles of our destination, where we were kindly 
entertained until Monday morning, by a family whose 
name I do not now recollect. On Monday morning 
we soon came in sight of Terre Haute, then a fron- 
tier village of about six hundred inhabitants. Father 
commenced his labors with a good prospect of use- 
fulness in God's vineyard ; but our days of sunshine 
soon passed and a time of deep affliction came. 

Mother was soon laid upon her dying bed, father 
was prostrated with fever and ague, my sister and lit- 
tle brother were both at the point of death, and care- 
fully cared for by kind friends of whom I will speak 
again. Oh, how vividly I remember the day on 
which our little sister Harriet died ! Father, mother 
and myself were all that were in the room at the time, 
I believe. Father removed her cradle to the foot of 
mother's bed, so as not to excite her unnecessarily. 
Just as the child expired mother noticed a change in 
father's countenance, and said : " Is my child dead ? 
Do not deceive me ! " Father replied : " Yes, my 



OP FRANKLIN, INDIANA. 



189 



dear ; your child is in heaven." From that time 
mother failed rapidly and died in two or three days 
afterward, rejoicing in hope of a blessed immortality. 
There were but eight or ten persons at mother's 
burial. There was so much sickness in the village 
that it was exceedingly difficult to get assistance. 
The only relative able to attend the burial was my- 
self, and I can assure you that, young as I then was, 
the feeling of sadness and loneliness was terrible. 
I did not go all the way to the graveyard but fol- 
lowed alone for a short distance and then returned to 
our desolated home, to stay with my father, who was 
then suffering with a terrible shake of ague. No 
blame could be attached to any one for lack of at- 
tention. I must speak in the highest praise of a few 
who ministered to our wants even beyond their abil- 
ity. Among the number were Mrs. Sinton, who took 
my sister and cared for her during a severe sickness ; 
Mrs. Cruft, who performed the part of a mother to 
my infant brother Lawrence, when given up by the 
physicians, and who still survives, deserve honorable 
mention ; also Miss Lucia Cruft, afterward wife of 
Rev. Win. Holliday, of Indianapolis, who remained 
with my mother to the last, and performed the last 
act of kindness, will never be forgotten. I fear I am 
occupying too much of the time, but without previous 
preparation I could scarcely leave the chain of mem- 
ory. Yet it is only a part of my father's severe afflic- 
tions, out of all of which God delivered him. After 
mother's death father was taken to the country, where 
he lay sick for several weeks. As soon as my sister 
and brother were able to travel, we were sent back 



190 



FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH 



to our friends in Ohio. Father remained, unable to 
travel for some time. During his sickness he con- 
tracted the disease, rheumatism, which, after many- 
years of suffering, was terminated by death. After 
returning to Ohio, father missionated for about one 
year in the region of Wilmington, and then removed 
to this place. In a very short time after coming here 
our second mother was taken from us by death, and 
we were left again lonely and desolate. Although 
among strangers, we were treated with the utmost 
kindness in our new home. Did time permit I would 
rejoice to express our thankfulness to these dear old 
friends who still remain and are here to-day, and to 
the children of those who have passed over the 
river, for their tender sympathy and kindness in our 
deep affliction. Were I to do so, I would address 
our dear old Aunt Lydia, now sitting here by my 
side, whom we all know only to love and respect, as 
chairman of this host of friends. 

With my father's faithfulness and ability as a min- 
ister, many now present are acquainted, and the rest 
of you have been told by him who preceded me. I 
will now close by telling you something of his last 
days, which were spent at Macomb, Illinois. 

For several years before his death he lost his sweet 
voice for singing. It also became difficult for him to 
speak in public. The last time he ever preached I 
believe was either from this pulpit or at Hopewell, I 
regret exceedingly that I have not with me now the 
last letter I ever received from him while making you 
his last visit. In this letter he spoke very tenderly 
of the many kind greetings of his old parishioners 



OF FRANKLIN, INDIANA. 



191 



and friends, and especially so of the blessed privilege 
of once more (for a few minutes) standing up in the 
name of Christ before those to whom he had so often 
proclaimed the gospel of salvation. 

During his last years father was especially fond of 
the society of his old brethren in the ministry, and I 
am sure that those who enjoyed his Christian inter- 
course would testify that while they were imparting 
religious comfort, they were also receiving the same. 
The day before his death I called to see him and 
found him unusually happy and cheerful. He said 
he felt so much better than common. He insisted on 
my remaining to tea, which I did, and then returned 
home, feeling rejoiced at the expectation of his pro- 
longed life. But our hopes were soon to be blasted. 
The next morning, about nine o'clock, a messenger 
came to my house with the word that father was dying. 
He was struck with paralysis about eight o'clock in 
the morning and lingered insensible until about four 
o'clock in the afternoon, when no doubt his long- 
cherished hopes were realized. His remains lie buried 
at Macomb, Illinois, and on his tombstone is the in- 
scription : " Rev. David Monfort, D. D., died October 
1 8, i860, aged 70 years, 7 months and 11 days. 
Forty years a faithful ambassador for Christ." 

Father Kent, one of the earliest ministers of the 
gospel in this part of the State, still residing at Shel- 
byville, was next called for. He said : 

I am neither a lawyer nor a judge, and have been 
a very poor minister. My remarks with regard to the 
church would be merely a repetition of what Judge 
Banta has so well said. 



192 



FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH 



He then gave a brief account of his pastorate and 
early missionary labors in Johnson, Shelby and Bar- 
tholomew Counties. He had received three hundred 
dollars a year as salary, half in money and half in 
produce. He had been able to live comfortably, and 
make provision for old age. His salary was supple- 
mented by the services of his wife as teacher. He 
said that congregations were somewhat different in 
those days from the present. The women all wore 
sun-bonnets, and parents brought their children to 
church, varying in age from the lads and lasses of 
fifteen down to the nursling in the mother's arms. 
He warmly commended the custom of bringing the 
children to church, as it produced beneficial results 
upon the children, and was no embarrassment or det- 
riment to the children. He never was annoyed by 
the music of crying babies. 

At the conclusion of Mr. Kent's remarks the pastor 
of the church said : I am about to introduce to you 
a lady who was one of our first Sabbath-school teach- 
ers. She came to our town in very early times, bring- 
ing her buttery in one end of a sack and smoke-house 
in the other, which she hung in the crotch of a tree, 
and then commenced housekeeping on the back side 
of a large fallen tree, lying near the place where Mr. 
Thomas Jeffery now resides. Allow me to introduce 
to you Mrs. Lydia Herriott. 

Mrs. Herriott came to the stand, and, without a tre- 
mor, with a full clear voice, standing as straight as on 
the day when she became mistress of that little cabin 
referred to, said: 

My friends, I am unprepared to come before you to 



OF FRANKLIN, INDIANA. 193 

speak, but I will talk a little of my early experiences 
in coming here. We came through much tribulation, 
and stopped over here in the wilderness. Before we 
settled in town we stopped on Sugar Creek, where 
some men had put up a cabin. Mr. Herriott got 
permission for us to move in. We did it. There was 
neither door, floor nor chimney. I took the ax and 
chopped forks, and drove them in the ground; placed 
poles on the forks, and laid clap-boards over the 
poles for my bed. I hung the wagon cover around 
for a curtain, and felt well fixed. We had our fire 
built by a stump in the center of the cabin. We had 
one big pot and two split-bottom chairs. We staid 
there six weeks, and then moved on the west side of 
Sugar Creek, where Mr. Herriott put up a cabin of 
his own. There was a snow six inches deep, and I 
had the snow to rake out. I don't think that at that 
time I ever murmured or grieved because we were so 
poor, but was always contented. When we got our 
puncheon floor, I would cook dinner and the men 
would sit on the edge of the puncheons and eat out 
of the pot. Mr. Herriott made a crop there. While 
we were living on Sugar Creek I took a horseback 
ride to the State of Ohio. My father had given each 
of his children eighty acres of land. Mr. Herriott 
proposed to me to go and sell the land. He saddled 
me a horse and put me on it. I took the old trace 
through Connersville. I do not remember having 
any company going, but my sister returned with me. 
I sold the land, got the money — all in silver— and 
brought it home in my saddle-bags. It took me 
seven days to go and seven days to return. 



194 



FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH 



After that we came and bought eighty acres of land, 
where the Widow Forsyth now lives. The brush was 
so thick that we could not ride through it. Mr. 
Herriott had engaged two hands to come and get 
out logs to build us a cabin. I cooked for them over 
a fire built beside a big log, near Thomas Jeffery's 
present residence. In the evening I got on my pony 
and rode over to Mr. King's, in town, and staid all 
night, while Mr. Herriott and the men slept on the 
ground. When we got up the cabin we went right 
in and commenced " livin'. " (Laughter.) 

We had no need for a door, for there were no chinks 
between the logs, and our good farm-dog could go in 
and out at his pleasure. But Mr. Herriott got into 
office (laughter), so we moved into town. We had 
plenty to eat and good health, until the ague came — 
that shook us some. (Laughter.) 

I have been blessed, have enjoyed good health, and 
the Lord has provided. 

In the first settling of this town I visited all the 
sick, and helped lay out all the dead. I will not name 
the rest. I was at one time without bread, and lived 
three weeks on boiled corn. 

Col. Simon Covert, of Hopewell, being called out, 
responded by giving an account of the first Sabbath- 
school celebration ever held in Franklin. He said : 
The Sabbath-schools of Hopewell and Franklin met 
here in Franklin. We formed a procession at the old 
court-house, and marched east on Jefferson Street, the 
distance of two or three squares. But the brush was 
so thick that we could not march very well. Aunt 



OF FRANKLIN, INDIANA. 



195 



hymn that was sung. It was one of Watts', and be- 
gan thus : 

"Our souls by love together knit." 

After our Sabbath-school procession had returned 
to the court-house, we had not quite finished our cele- 
bration, for we had not yet had a speech. But we 
proceeded to arrange for that deficiency, by sending 
a committee of two, myself being one, over to the 
hotel where Robert Wood's drug-store now stands. 
Mr. James Havens, a young Methodist minister, had 
arrived at the hotel. We were to bring him over to 
talk to us. We went to him and preferred our re- 
quest, to which he very gruffly replied: " No ! I'll not 
go ; you Presbyterians are going to be in our way in 
this country." 

We returned, made our report, and dismissed the 
children without a speech. 

I remember some things earlier than the Sabbath- 
school celebration. I remember sitting as grand jury- 
man before we had any court-house. To the ques- 
tion, " Where did you sit?" Col. Covert replied, " We 
sat on a log in the woods, and had a bailiff to keep 
the public away from us." 

Mrs. Nancy .Rutherford, a pioneer settler, and one 
who became a member of this church soon after its 
organization, being in the audience, was called for* 
She declined coming to the platform, but from her 
seat in the audience said she remembered the first 
court ever held in the county, which was at Mr. 
Smiley's, on Sugar Creek. She was invited to help 
cook. In answer to the question, " Did you cook for 
the court?" she replied, "We cooked for all that 



196 



FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH 



Lydia Herriott led the singing. I remember the 
came — they had nothing to drink stronger than water." 

Mr. John Herriott, Sen., replied to an invitation to 
present any early incidents : I do not think I have 
anything to say that would be of interest to this 
meeting. I came here in May, 1827, and helped to 
cut the brush out of the public square. We met every 
evening for two or three weeks, to burn logs and 
brush. The county commissioners donated the pres- 
ent church lot and the one east of it for church and 
school purposes. I helped to clear off these lots. 
I don't know how the Presbyterians happened to be 
sharp enough to get the deed to these lots in their 
name* I helped to clear off the grounds of the Bap- 
tist Seminary (now a college), and the old graveyard. 

Mr. Herriott told a humorous story about his at- 
tempt to split rails out of elm, also of the first tem- 
perance society. He said further : I spoke of meeting 
every evening. I think there were seven or eight of 
us, and we all turned out at these meetings but Mr. 
King, who was postmaster, and Samuel Herriott, 
who was clerk of court. They were excused. One 
of our men got too much strong liquor on a certain 
occasion, so it was proposed that we have some regu- 
lations about the matter. We drew up a constitution 
saying that any man who got drunk should dig up a 
stump — for a big drunk he was to dig up a large 
stump ; for a little drunk, a little stump. 

One morning, on going out, I observed near where 

*It is probable that the lots were to become the property of the church 
that first organized, and in that way they fell to the Presbyterian Church. 

S. E. W. 



OF FRANKLIN, INDIANA. 



197 



Henry Service's shoe-store now is, a very large stump 
dug up. - I understood the joke. Some of our com- 
pany had been drunk, and had paid the penalty. 
Judge F. M. Finch, being called, responded: 
I have very little to tell this audience. I came here 
in 183 1. I have been thinking, and can not recog- 
nize one gentleman who was a member of the church 
at that time, except Major John Herriott. Mrs. Lydia 
Herriott was here ; all the others have gone. Now 
it is a sad reflection that all that great number are 
buried. Not one remains to tell the story. So we 
are all passing away. 

I came here to practice law, got my license after I 
came, and had to travel on horseback to Decatur 
County to get the judge to sign my license. I re- 
member the old court-house (pointing to a pencil 
sketch of the same, which hung before the audience). 
The diagram is not exactly correct. It had a rickety 
stairway upon the outside. The end that you entered 
stood to the south. Here I attended the first two 
courts after I came. The brick walls of the new 
court-house were nearly up. Mr. Hall was the con- 
tractor. 

The judiciary was then composed of a judge and 
two associates. Some said it was a hundred — one 
and two ciphers. I remember that old court-house. 
It was a very rude structure. There justice was 
administered without delay and without favor. I was 
a judge before the new constitution and do not believe 
there has been much improvement in the way of ad- 
ministering justice. I talked with my brethren on 
the bench frequently and found it to edification. 
20 



198 



FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH 



As to the recollections of this place they are too 
many to speak of. I had my share of the hardships, 
not here, but elsewhere. I am a little old, fogyish, 
and can not help thinking there was as much enjoy- 
ment then as now. There was not as much enlight- 
enment. I don't think they understood the plan of 
salvation as well as now ; don't think the Rev. Jas. 
Duncan* would pass muster now ; not with Chicago 
Presbytery at least. 

There is a gradual upward tendency. There is 
more vice than there was fifty, or even thirty years 
ago (more even in proportion to the population) ; but 
there is also more virtue. There is more philanthropy 
of feeling now than then. I know there were some 
notable exceptions. There was nowhere the cry of 
sickness and suffering that Mrs. Herriott did not go, 
and there were a few other such cases. 

This church has everything to hope for. Though 
only a few remain who planted the cross here, others 
have been raised up to carry the standard. 

I removed the other day, and looking over my 
books (for I found I could not carry everything with 
me into my new house any more than I can into that 
upper house), I came across a volume of discourses 
by Rev. Jas. Duncan, published in 1828. In regard 
to its Calvinism it is sound as a roach. That any 
man should ever be converted under such preaching 
is a miracle, but that the faithful should be confirmed 
in their faith is not strange. I now present this 

* Mr. Duncan was a Presbyterian minister of the early days in this 
region, and was particularly noted for his severe way of putting what are 
called "the hard doctrines" of the Presbyterian Church. He published a 
volume of sermons, which Judge Finch presented at this meeting. 



OF FRANKLIN, INDIANA. 



199 



volume (handing it to the pastor), as a relic of the 
past, of what Presbyterian preaching once was. I 
think it is worth preserving as a curiosity. 

Dr. James Ritchey, formerly a citizen of Franklin 
for many years, prominent in his profession, and for 
some time representative of the county in the State 
Legislature, being present, was called upon to address 
the audience. He responded. 

My friends, I am glad to be here. I am glad 
every time I come to Franklin to meet my old 
friends. I am sorry that I have to leave town with- 
out shaking hands with all my old acquaintances. 

I attended a Presbyterian meeting held in the 
woods, about where my brother (Lawrence P. 
Ritchey) lives, in 1829. I remember seeing Mrs. 
Rutherford there that day. I came here to practice 
medicine, did not remain long, but went to Columbus. 
In 1833 I returned here, where I lived more than 
thirty years. 

Ten years ago I knew almost every face, now I 
know but few. I always was a New School man. 
The Rev. Jas. H. Johnson, still living at Crawfords- 
ville, was in the habit of stopping at my house. The 
feeling between the Old and the New School was 
not the best at thai time. 

Though not a member of this church, I have been 
a very constant attendant. We had a New School 
church, but the members were removed by death and 
otherwise, until only Judge Finch, his wife, myself 
and Mrs. Cummins remained. So Judge Finch and 
I sold the church and transferred the funds to the 



200 



FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH 



brethren at Edinburg. My wife was a member of 
this church, her father Tunis Vannuys, an elder in it. 
I am glad to have met you all here. May your 
progress for the next fifty years be greater than in 
the fifty years past. 

In connection with the reminiscence meeting the 
following letters have a most interesting place and 
most naturally have a place in this volume. 

Letter from Rev. James A. McKee. 

Thomasville, Georgia, November, 1874. 
To the Friends assembled in Memorial Meeting of 
Franklin Presbyterian Church. 

Dear Brethren : Absence from you on this 
occasion I regard as one of the greatest privations of 
my life. It only remains in complying with the re- 
quest of your committee to address you in a few 
lines by letter. Twenty-four years ago I took the 
charge of the church of Franklin and continued in 
it for nine and one-half years of the best portion of 
my life; and I think also it was a very interesting 
portion of your life. 

David Monfort, D. D., of precious memory, was 
my only predecessor as pastor. He had been for 
several years an invalid, and surrendered the charge 
because of impaired .health and increasing infirmi- 
ties. I found a bench of five ruling elders. All of 
them were substantial men, as Geo. King, Cornelius 
Hutton, Samuel McKinney, Harvey Sloan, and last, 
but not least, Allen McCaslin. The last-named only 
remains as a connecting link between that generation 
and the present. 



OF FRANKLIN, INDIANA. 



201 



No death occurred in the existing eldership during 
my pastorate. As places were made vacant by re- 
moval, others were brought into the session, as John 
Banta, Samuel C Dunn, Hampton Terrell and G. 
M. Overstreet. 

At first my call to the charge of the church was 
for three-fourths of the time at a salary of $400 per 
annum. Before the pastoral relation was formed this 
was changed to $500 for the whole time, and no par- 
sonage. 

In those days this was considered no mean salary. 
To a small family using economy it furnished a com- 
fortable living. Then rents were low, fuel cheap, 
flour $3.50 per barrel, pork from $2.00 to $3.00 per 
hundred, dry goods and groceries in about the same 
proportion. After two or three years the salary was 
increased to $700 per annum, at which it remained 
until the close of the pastorate, and I may add that 
it was always all paid. 

I found the church worshiping in a large, low 
frame building of very primitive appearance, after- 
ward used as a cooper-shop on the railroad. It may 
be there still for aught I know. 

The county was then comparatively new, and the 
people had but little spare means. Father King, who 
had more substance than any one else in the church, 
had dropped the remark that he would give $1,000 
toward the erection of a new church building, on the 
condition that a church worth not less than $4,000 
were put up. Some persons found fault with this 
condition, and took the ground that the amount 
ought to be given for any kind of church. I justified 



202 



FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH 



the condition, wrote and circulated a subscription, 
raising between $4,000 and $5,000, which resulted in 
the erection of the present church building, out of 
debt. This was at that time regarded as a fine super- 
structure, and in good taste, and was quite an achieve- 
ment of the church. But the material building did 
not satisfy. We longed to see the spiritual building 
strengthened and beautified. In due time the Lord 
gave us our desire. About the first of January, 1852, 
we entered the lecture-room of the new church 
building for the first. Not long after the Lord sanc- 
tified it by giving us to see the hopeful conversion of 
about forty persons, who, with few exceptions, have 
remained steadfast in the faith. The membership 
when I accepted the charge did not exceed one 
hundred and fifteen. More names were on the roll, 
but the persons could not be found. The above- 
mentioned ingathering added very much to the cour- 
age, strength and members of the church. 

During the summer of 1852 the audience-room of 
the church was completed. The winter following the 
Lord visited his people again, bringing into the fold 
some twenty-five or thirty persons. After these re- 
vivals, it was ascertained that for months before 
mothers in Israel had been deeply exercised, spend- 
ing even whole nights in prayer for the conversion 
of their children, and the spiritual welfare of the 
church. But it was in the winter of 1857 and '58 we 
enjoyed the richest blessing from the Lord. During 
a long season of dearth our hearts had ached in sad- 
ness over the low state of religious interest. Political 
excitement ran high, causing strife, and other adverse 



OF FRANKLIN, INDIANA. 



203 



winds blew upon us, till our hearts were well-nigh 
broken. But when men were brought low, the Lord 
again appeared for the deliverance of Zion; and 
every day or evening, save two or three Saturdays, 
for eight weeks together this church was open for 
worship. 

The whole community was moved with a desire to 
hear the word of the Lord, and scores were hope- 
fully converted. Some fifty or more became mem- 
• bers of the Presbyterian Church, and others chose a 
connection with other branches of the Church. This 
revival was peculiar, in that no noisy demonstrations 
or clap-trap means seemed to be attended with suc- 
cess. "The Spirit made the reading, but especially 
the preaching of the word, an effectual means of con- 
vincing and converting sinners." "For our gospel 
came not unto you in word only, but also in power, 
and in the Holy Ghost, and in much assurance." 
(i Thess. i. 5.) There is one more important fact I 
desire to put on record, in justice to the history of 
this church. 

During my pastorate the church did an excellent 
work for the town and vicinity, in promoting an edu- 
cational interest, the fruits of which are enjoyed to 
this day. 

Twenty-four years ago our common school system 
was in its infancy, and in all this region the educa- 
tional standard was low. Then Hopewell had no 
graded school. In the erection of the church rooms 
were allotted in the basement for a select female 
school. Mrs. McKee had had experience in teach- 
ing; and here, under her management, for several 



204 



FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH 



years, until the graded school system was put in 
operation, and even after, a select school for young 
ladies was conducted, affording opportunities of in- 
struction, not only in rudimental, but also in the 
higher branches of an education. I do not hesitate 
to say that this school did much, not only in this 
city, but throughout this whole region, in diffusing 
an educational interest ; and the future historian who 
fails to. recognize and record this fact will be deficient 
in crediting the church with one of its most import- 
ant and useful enterprises. The school was under 
the care of the officers of the church, and for years 
they sat in council from time to time, for the further- 
ance of its interests. When necessary they called 
teachers from a distance, pledging and making up 
their salaries. While the school was not sectarian, 
it yet exerted a salutary influence on the moral and 
religious interests of this region. But it is especially 
on account of the influence of the school in advanc- 
ing the educational interests of the town and vicinity 
that we have desired to notice it, greatly aiding, as I 
firmly believe, in laying the foundations for present 
success in educational matters. 

And now, brethren, a decade of years and more 
have passed since our relation as pastor and people 
has been severed. What changes have passed since 
then? Your course has continued to be onward. 
You now constitute a strong church, with a numer- 
ous membership. Many strange faces have come in 
to occupy those seats. But where are the fathers ? 
Where are King, and Banta, and Bergen, and Terrell ? 
Who fills good Father Sloan's seat in the sanctuary, 



OP FRANKLIN, INDIANA. 



205 



so recently vacated ? And a score of others, where 
are they ? All, all gone to their reward ; and we are 
following close up in their footsteps, and will soon be 
with them. Let us ever abide faithful, that we may 
wear the crown of life. May the Lord prepare us 
all for a glorious union, memorial meeting beyond 
the flood — where not only those present in your as- 
sembly to-day, and the absent ones still living shall 
be gathered up, but where those who have gone be- 
fore, and those who come up hereafter to fill their 
seats, pastors and people, shall all be united in one 
glorious blood-washed throng, shouting the victories 
of redeeming love, is my prayer for Christ's sake. 

Ever yours in gospel bonds, 

James A. McKee. 



Letter from Rev. P. S. Cleland, 

FOR MORE THAN TWENTY-FIVE YEARS PASTOR OF THE CHURCH AT GREENWOOD. 

Topeka, Kansas, November 17, 1874. 
Messrs. McCaslin, Martin and Clark, 

Franklin, Indiana : 

Please accept my thanks for your kind 
invitation to the approaching " Half-Century Cele- 
bration of the Organization of the Presbyterian 
Church of Franklin, Indiana." I should have 
greatly preferred to have replied to it in person. 
But in the good providence of God I am prevented 
from so doing; not because I have arrived at that 
period of life when " the grasshopper is a burden," 
but because the grasshopper has not respected the 
rights of a "poor preacher," and has thereby made a 

21 



206 



FIRST PRESBYTER! A.N CHURCH 



trip to Indiana impracticable to me at present. For 
several reasons an attendance on your jubilee would 
be deeply interesting to me. I was a resident of 
your county for nearly thirty years, and for more 
than a quarter of a century I had charge of the 
church in Greenwood. And while, during that time 
the two churches were on different sides of the line 
which divided the Presbyterian Church into two 
Schools, their relations to each other were always 
amicable. 

My intercourse with the pastors of your church 
was always pleasant and fraternal, and I sympathized 
with them in their labors, their trials and their suc- 
cesses. Moreover, some of my former parishioners, 
and a part of whom are my spiritual children, are 
members of your church. I should greatly rejoice 
to unite with them on an occasion so deeply interest- 
ing. And among the chief reasons why I should like 
to attend the approaching anniversary is that as the 
former pastor of your pastor I have a special interest 
in him, and I should greatly rejoice to be with him 
on an occasion so interesting in the history of his 
church, and to him as its pastor. As a son in the 
ministry I greatly love him, and rejoice in the blessed 
and manifold results of his labors in the service of 
Christ. I charge you to love him and to be fellow- 
helpers in his work among you. God bless him and 
make him a still greater blessing to you and to the 
cause of the Master. 

Permit me to congratulate the church in Franklin 
on the event of the Semi-centennial Anniversary of 
its organization. It is surely a vine of God's plant- 



OF FRANKLIN, INDIANA. 



207 



ing. It was planted in the wilderness. God has 
preserved and nurtured it. Its branches have spread 
far and wide. Its clusters have been abundant and 
good. Many souls have been trained in it for the 
kingdom of Christ. Some are not, for they have 
been gathered into the Church above; others remain 
as witnesses to the power of the gospel, the faithful- 
ness of Christ, and laborers in the vineyard of our 
Lord. 

May your past history be an earnest of other suc- 
cess in the future. Your brother in Christ, 

P. S. Cleland. 



Letter from Rev James H. Johnston, 

Among the earliest Presbyterian ministers in the State of Indiana. 

Crawfordsville, November 28, 1874. 
Bro. Wishard : Your letter of November 6, inform- 
ing me of the Semi-centennial Celebration to be held 
at Franklin on the closing days of this month, was 
duly received, and would have been answered before 
this, if I could have sooner decided whether I could 
comply with the invitation. I have reluctantly come 
to the conclusion that the prospect of the weather is 
such that it is hot advisable to undertake the journey. 
I therefore write you a few lines in answer to your 
inquiries. 

The first time I passed through Franklin was in 
the last week of December, 1824. I reached Madison, 
in Jefferson County, on the ninth day of that month. 
I preached on the first Sabbath that I spent in the 
State, some thirteen miles north of Madison, preached 
the next Sabbath at Madison, then started for the in- 



208 



FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH 



terior of the State, in a direct course to Indianapolis. 
I reached Mr. Joseph Young's, at the forks of Sugar 
Creek and Young's Creek, either Friday evening or 
early enough on Saturday to have word circulated 
for preaching at his house on the Sabbath, and sent 
an appointment to Franklin for preaching there on 
Sabbath evening. 

I have not a distinct recollection at whose house 
the evening meeting was held ; neither can I recol- 
lect whether a Presbyterian Church had yet been 
formed at Franklin. If so, it was still without a 
pastor. When I came to this State, from information 
I could receive, there were not more than fifteen 
Presbyterian ministers in the State. Some of these 
were in the eastern part of the State, and I never 
had an opportunity to become acquainted with them. 
Those with whom I became acquainted, in a short 
time, were Samuel T. Scott, of Vincennes ; Wm. W, 
Martin, of Livonia; John M. Dickey, of Washington ; 
John Finley Crow, of Hanover ; and Isaac Reed, of 
Owen County. Samuel Gregg and Tilly H. Brown 
were shortly after added to the number ; also Alex- 
ander Williamson. There was a Presbyterian Church 
at Indianapolis, to which the Rev. George Bush was 
preaching, and one at Bloomington, supplied by Rev. 
Baynard R. Hall. Of Wm. Henderson, of whom 
mention is made in Bro. Banta's letter, I have no 
recollection. William Duncan was, I think, a Scotch 
minister, without charge. Rev. John Moreland came 
in at a later period. These were all faithful laborers 
in the Master's service. For want of time I am pre- 
vented from going more into detail. Sincerely yours, 

James H. Johnston. 



OF FRANKLIN, INDIANA. 



209 



The meeting of the afternoon closed at this point, 
with the announcement that the ladies were prepared 
to serve tea, in the lecture-room below, to those of 
our friends who must take their departure by the next 
train. 



THE EVEJSTLNG COLLATION. 



The reminiscence meeting had been continued un- 
til a late hour in the afternoon. Immediately at the 
close of that meeting the ladies of the church and 
congregation spread their tables in the lecture-room 
below. Ample provision had been made for the en- 
tertainment of the large number of friends present. 
The arrangements of the evening were admirably 
executed by the ladies and gentlemen of the com- 
mittees. The evening hours were passed in a de- 
lightful social reunion at the table in the lecture room, 
followed by informal greetings and conversations in 
the audience-room above. It had been the purpose 
of the pastor, in concert with visiting friends, to in- 
troduce at a suitable time the subject of a new house 
of worship for the congregation. But the current of 
social feeling for the evening ran so strongly in other 
directions that nothing was attempted in the way of 
speeches. Indeed, it would have been out of ~place 
to have introduced at this hour any other subject. 
Hence everything was left to that spontaneity which 
is the crowning beauty of such a social gathering. 

All were fed, all were entertained, all were joyful. 
Never did the family tie of a Christian people bind 
together more tenderly and beautifully than on this 
closing evening of the three days' service. Nor was 

(210) 



OF FRANKLIN, INDIANA. 



211 



the occasion enjoyed by any more than by those 
whose hands furnished the evening's repast. Long 
will the jubilee meeting linger in the memory of 
those of us who were privileged to enjoy it — rising in 
interest, as it did, to the very last moment. Yet, as 
everything must terminate in this life, the supreme 
moment of interest came when those who had met 
on this occasion must separate again. 

Then was sung the Sabbath-school hymn : 

I need thee every hour, 

Most gracious Lord ; 
No tender voice like thine 

Can peace afford. 
I need thee every hour, 

Stay thou near by j 
Temptations lose their power 

When thou art nigh. . 
I need thee every hour, 

In joy or pain j 
Come quickly and abide, 

Or life is vain. 
I need thee every hour, 

Teach me thy will ; 
And thy rich promises 

In me fulfill. 
I need thee every hour; 

Most Holy One — 
Oh make me thine indeed, 

Thou blessed Son. 

CHORUS. 

I need thee, oh ! I need thee; 

Every hour I need thee ; 
Oh bless me now, my Savior ! 

I come to thee. 

After the hymn was sung, the pastor of the church 
offered prayer and pronounced the benediction, when 
the goodly company retired. 



PRESBYTERIAN DOCTRINE AND LIFE. 



yVLoi^AL J^ORCE IN jSoCIETY. 



A SERMON, 



PKEACHED BY 



S, E. WISHAED, 

In Connection with the Half- Century Jfieeting of the 
(Presbyterian Church 



FRANKLIN, INDIANA. 



SERMON.* 



TEXT. — Isaiah ii. 3 : " For out of Zion shall go forth the law, and 
the word of the Lord from Jerusalem." 

There clusters about the text a beautiful description 
of the events which were to accompany and follow 
the advent of the Messiah. The prophecy indicates 
a great turning to the Lord. Mount Zion and Jeru- 
salem, types of the- Church of Christ, were to be 
thronged with those who should eagerly seek God. 

"The mountain of the Lord's house shall be es- 
tablished in the top of the mountains, and shall be 
exalted above the hills, and all nations shall flow 
unto it. And many shall go and say, Come ye, and 
let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the 
house of the God of Jacob; and he will teach us of 
his ways, and we will walk in his paths." Here the 
prophet assigns the reason for this great reformation : 
" For out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word 
of the Lord from Jerusalem." 

You may consider for the present hour the state- 
ment that " Out of Zion shall go forth the law" both 
as a historic and present fact of the world's experience. 
The Zion of the period in which the text was spoken, 

* This sermon was prepared for the Sabbath following the half-century 
meeting, and (although not strictly belonging to this volume) was an out- 
growth of that occasion. Hence at the request of the session it is assigned 
a place in the volume. 

(215) 



216 



FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH 



the Church of God, was the source of religious knowl- 
edge to the world of that time. There was no true 
knowledge of God in that period except what came 
to the world through Zion — through the Church. 
The world by wisdom knew not God. Knowledge 
came only as God spake. He gave truth to his peo- 
ple, and committed to them the transmission of these 
oracles of truth to a world in darkness. 

One of the best scholars of the past generation 
says : " It is capable of about as clear demonstration 
as any other fact of ancient history, that no incon- 
siderable part of the knowledge of God in ancient 
Greece was obtained by intercourse with the sages of 
distant lands, and that the truths held in Zion or Je- 
rusalem thus radiated from land to land." Hence 
the prophecy, that "Out of Zion shall go forth the law," 
was literally fulfilled. And the effort of the cultured 
heathen to bring their idolatry up to the standard of 
beauty and glory which characterized revealed relig- 
ion, resulted in the peerless statue of Minerva, at 
Athens, and the Parthenon. 

It is equally true now that the Church of Christ 
is the center and source of religious truth to the world. 
Erase what of moral truth God has made known to 
the Church, to Zion, and there will be nothing left. 
Take from the world the words of this inspired history 
and song, the prophecies, precepts and promises of 
this law-book of Zion, and our heritage would be one 
of darkness unilluminated by a single ray of light. 
This accords with the facts announced by Christ, as 
he marked out the mission of the disciples in the 
world : " Ye shall be witnesses unto me, both in Je- 



OF FRANKLIN, INDIANA. 



217 



rusalem, and in al] Judea, and in Samaria, and unto 
the uttermost part of the earth." The language of 
this distinct mission was the re-echo of the old proph- 
ecy : " Out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the 
word of the Lord from Jerusalem." 

The teaching and enforcement of moral truth, in 
the doctrines and life of Christ's Church, pre-emi- 
nently constitute the mission to which she is called. 
It is thus, that " Out of Zion the law is to go forth." 

The Presbyterian Church is one of the branches of 
that Zion out of which the law is to go forth. We 
claim to be allied to every other branch of Christ's 
Church by the precious blood of cleansing by that 
redemption which makes all of God's people one. 
With sincere and brotherly affection for the members 
of Christ's glorious Church, of every name, let me, 
while we are yet within the shadow of our half-cen- 
tury commemoration, discuss the theme of 

Presbyterian Doctrine and Life as a Moral 
Force in Society. 

For I conclude that it was spoken of us as of all who 
love and obey the Lord : " Out of Zion shall go forth 
the law," 

The Presbyterian Church has, by the grace of God, 
had some humble part in the propagation of the 
higher forms of life and character in society. It has 
done this only as it has taught and exemplified the 
law of God as revealed in his word. 

In discussing the moral force of Presbyterian doc- 
trine and life, it should be premised that our Church 
holds in common with all true believers the doctrines 



218 



FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH 



of repentance toward God, of faith in the Lord Jesus 
Christ, of cleansing by his blood, of regeneration by 
the Holy Spirit, of a holy life as both the fruit and 
the evidence of a regenerated nature, of the inspira- 
tion and sole authority of the word of God, and of 
the retributions of an endless existence beyond the 
grave. 

In addition to these doctrines which are held in 
common by all Christian people, there are other doc- 
trines which are commonly distinguished as Calvinis- 
tic, which have ever been held and taught in the Pres- 
byterian Church. The Calvinistic system, as it is 
called, has taken on considerable breadth. Sometimes 
it has been pushed to the extreme of fatalism, and 
again it has been held in harmony with the doctrine 
of human responsibility. 

While the system teaches the sovereignty of God, 
his purposes and decrees, it recognizes the fact that 
God has established the freedom of moral beings, and 
has decreed their free participation in every work that 
pertains to their well-being. Men are to work out 
their salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God 
that worketh in them, both to will and to do of his 
own good pleasure." 

In discussing the moral force of Presbyterian doctrine 
and life, it will be necessary to refer to those doctrines 
which the Presbyterian Church has prominently 
taught, and the teaching of which has entered into 
and given cast and tone to her religious life. Among 
these doctrines is: 

I. That of Man's Utter Ruin and Helplessness in Sin; 
that every soul begins life with such a ruined nature 



OF FRANKLIN, INDIANA. 



219 



that his moral acts start him in the wrong direction ; 
that he is prone to evil, and invariably chooses the evil 
until God by his Spirit shows him and draws him into 
the better way. , 

The doctrine is, that no man can save himself. He 
is ruined by sin, lost to all good, unless God delivers 
him — dead in trespasses and in sins until created anew 
in Christ Jesus. 

The influence of this doctrine, as fairly and scrip- 
turally presented, is to beget in the soul a deep sense 
of the terrible nature of sin, which can thus pervert 
and ruin a race of beings who had been created in 
God's image. Here you perceive is one of the first 
conditions of deliverance from the thralldom of sin — 
a discovery of the ruin which' it has wrought, and 
with which it threatens us in the future. The logical 
force of such truth is to put the soul on its guard 
against sin, to send it in haste to the only Source of 
help and deliverance, to give one a deep sense of per- 
sonal unworthiness, to lay true foundations for a new 
character. " To this man will I look, even to him 
that is poor and of a contrite spirit, and trembleth at 
my word." " He that humbleth himself shall be ex- 
alted." The first step out of the death of sin is the 
discovery of that death. Show the soul its ruin, and 
it cries for help. God responds, " Behold, he pray- 
eth !" The hand of sovereign grace is stretched out 
to him. Once delivered from the guilt and corruption 
of sin, something can be made of the soul. But until 
this deliverance is secured, the life is a series of moral 
failures and disasters. The individual is not helped. 



220 



FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH 



Society receives no help from him, who will have no 
help from God. 

As the complement of this doctrine of man's ruin 
in sin, the Presbyterian Church holds and teaches. 

II. The Doctrine of Divine Sovereignty. 

It is a part of the creed and life of the Presbyte- 
rian Church that God has a plan in the government of 
this world ; that his plan of government was matured 
according to his own will and wisdom ; that he will 
execute that plan as a Sovereign, doing his pleasure 
among the armies of heaven, and among the inhab- 
itants of earth ; that " there is no counsel nor under- 
standing nor wisdom against the Lord;" that "he 
giveth not account of any of his matters." He is over 
all, above all, God blessed forever more. He speaks, 
and it is done. He chooses his methods of government 
and providence, and carries them out despite the op- 
position and rage of wicked men. So wise and all- 
controlling is he in his sovereign administration of 
the affairs of this world, that all the opposition of the 
wicked can only reveal the spirit of rebellion which 
is in man, then be overruled to the accomplishment 
of God's purposes, so that he causes the wrath of man 
to praise him, and restrains the remainder. 

The logical effect of this doctrine upon the life is 
to bring low every imagination, to abase all human 
pride. It strikes to the heart of every godless am- 
bition, and cuts to the quick every soul that has lifted 
itself up against God. When Peter preached that 
powerful and effective sermon to Jerusalem sinners on 
the day of Pentecost, he flashed this doctrine upon 
their consciences : " Him, being delivered by the de- 



OF FRANKLIN, INDIANA. 



221 



terminate counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye have 
taken, and by wicked hands have crucified and slain." 
History asserts that <( when they heard this, they were 
pricked in their heart, and said unto Peter and to the 
rest of the apostles, Men and brethren, what shall we 
do?" 

It is in the preaching, proof and conviction of the 
doctrine of God's sovereignty that sinners are brought 
to see both their danger and help. This doctrine 
makes itself felt in the life by enkindling the highest 
courage in the hearts of those who trust in a sover- 
eign God. They may well say : " If God be for us, 
who can be against us ?" If he who holds the des- 
tinies of all men and nations and kingdoms in his 
hand, who can transform the malice of enemies into 
a blessing upon his people, is at the helm of univer- 
sal government, the cause of righteousness is safe. 
A few souls on the solid basis of this truth will stand 
against all combinations of evil. This is the kind of 
truth that makes heroic lives. It inspires the faith of 
martyrs. The Puritans and Huguenots put to sea 
with this doctrinal keel under them. They endured 
as seeing Him who is invisible, and yet is seen in 
every event of His providence. 

A sovereign God working out his immutable pur- 
poses by the instrumentality of all mutable things, 
holding in his hand the final success of his cause, 
this has been the undergirding confidence which has 
molded men and society. 

As a branch of this great doctrine of God's sov- 
erignty, which the Presbyterian Church has ever 
taught and lived upon, you are pointed to 
22 



222 



FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH 



III. The Doctrine of a Particular Providence. 

It is the doctrine that there are no accidents in this 
world ; that all things are ordered of the Lord, and 
sure, that everything that takes place occurs under 
either his permissive or ordering providence; that a 
sparrow does not fall to the ground without his no- 
tice; that even the hairs of your head are numbered. 

You will perceive at once the influence over the 
hearts of men of this precious scriptural truth. It 
puts God in the very midst of your life ; gives him a 
place in all the events that concern your being. You 
may say, " I have set the Lord always before me. Be- 
cause he is at my right hand, I shall not be moved." 
Here, in God's immediate connection with the events 
of every life, directing and controlling human destiny, 
is the basis for all authority. The submission of the 
will and the life to such a God prepares one to sub- 
ordinate himself to the just claims of the State. 

As society can not exist without law and govern- 
ment, without the recognition of mutual obligation, 
and the subordination of individual interest to the 
general good, you can not fail to see the bearing upon 
society of a system of truth which exalts God, rec- 
ognizes his authority over us, and undertakes obedi- 
ence to that authority. Here is the material for the 
best citizen. 

A fruitful source of danger to human society has 
ever been the disposition to ignore authority. There 
is no greater peril in the present hour than is found 
in the irreverence, the breaking away from authority, 
the pushing of insubordination to the extreme of law- 
lessness. The pendulum now swings to the extreme 



OF FRANKLIN, INDIANA. 



223 



of liberty, even to license. Individual liberty is in 
danger of being pushed to the point of anarchy. 
Hence the need of the world, whatever may be the 
wish, is the recognition of authority. That system 
of doctrine and life which teaches men obedience to 
rightful authority in morals has proved to be and will 
continue to be the power which will conserve the 
highest interests of society. These doctrines of our 
Church have not only inspired men to achieve liberty, 
but to preserve it by subordinating the individual life 
and interest to the common good. 

IV. Further, the doctrine of the Supreme Authority 
of the Scriptures as the Word of God, hence the only 
infallible rule of life and duty, has had a prominent 
place in the teachings of our Church. 

The Scriptures are held to be the word of God to a 
lost world — the light that is to enlighten every dark- 
ened soul. Every system of morals or theology is to 
be brought to the test of this truth. Here again our 
Church in her teaching and life has put herself on the 
side of authority — of divine authority. She has rec- 
ognized a source of truth unfailing — a court of appeal 
beyond which nothing can be desired. She is accus- 
tomed to submit her judgment and all her philosophies 
to a "thus saith the Lord," and has therefore to the 
full extent of her life and influence again exalted di- 
vine authority. 

While other branches of Christ's Church have held 
the theory of the inspiration of the Scriptures, and 
do hold to this theory, yet none have more carefully 
or more valiantly made a practical test of this theory. 
So marked has been the doctrine and life of our 



224 FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH 

Church on this subject, that we have been charged (as 
if it were a fault) with accepting doctrines of the Bible, 
simply because they are found in the word of God; 
doctrines which human reason can not fathom, which 
God has not explained, only revealed. 

The chief value of this subordination of our will 
and wisdom to the authority of God's , word lies in 
two directions : first, it is an acknowledgment of au- 
thority, and so far prepares the way for all just author- 
ity in the State ; and, secondly, it is an acknowledg- 
ment of the best and highest authority, that which can 
give the largest blessings to society and to the State. 

The moral force of Presbyterian doctrine and life 
will be seen again in the doctrine which our Church 
has ever held and inculcated on the subject of 

V. Parental Responsibility. 

We recognize the children of believers as in cove- 
nant relation to the Church. We hold ourselves 
morally bound to teach them the truth of God's 
word, to train them to habits of reverent piety, 
praying with them and for them, to teach them obe- 
dience to parental authority, respectful deference to 
the aged, and to all that are in authority. While we 
can not claim to have succeeded perfectly in our work 
in this regard, yet probably no branch of the Church 
has done so much faithful work in this direction. 
Presbyterians have been proverbial in the past for 
their careful instruction of their children, for teach- 
ing subordination in the family. 

In these days of less carefulness and faithfulness 
our fathers have been criticised — but with no just 



OF FRANKLIN, INDIANA. 



225 



ground — for over-much painstaking in the moral train- 
ing of their children. 

Every intelligent mind, familiar with the history of 
society, can perceive the value to the world of such 
family culture. Especially do those who have to do 
with the administration of justice in the State have 
occasion to mark the value of this sort of nurture. 

The lawlessness, the profligacy and pauperism 
which afflict society are not the outgrowth of such 
family discipline. They come from the homes where 
children are neglected, where prayer and scriptural 
study are not known, where disobedience to parents 
is the school which prepares the young for open vice 
and crime. We can not overestimate the value to 
the State of the highest forms of life in the Christian 
home. Without morals and nurture in the family we 
can have no morals in the State. When once the 
popular vices of society have entered the family and 
rooted out all religious nurture there, taught insub- 
ordination and willfulness in our homes, then society 
is prepared for anarchy and ruin. But so long as 
the Church of Christ is true to her covenanted chil- 
dren, the State will be secure in the morality and 
piety of her coming citizens, legislators and adminis- 
trators of government 

The moral force of our Church doctrine and life 
will be discovered in the prominence which has been 
given to 

VI. The Law of the Christian Sabbath. 

Our Church has taken and ever maintained the 
high and scriptural ground that " the Sabbath was 
made for man;" for his physical, intellectual and 



226 



FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH 



moral being. Hence we have not only taught that 
the Sabbath was to be a day of physical rest, but 
also a day of respite from all secular pursuits and 
pleasures, a day for religious worship, for communion 
with God, for the study of his word. This has been 
the doctrine of our Church, and her life has grown 
out of these views. 

The influence of such doctrine and life upon society 
has made itself felt. It has kept prominently before 
society the scriptural observance of the Sabbath, and 
has wrought out the best civil and social conditions 
for the race. It has produced a moral and religious 
sentiment on this subject, without which just govern- 
ment could not long exist; for no nation can live and 
prosper without a Sabbath. History has but one 
utterance on this subject. The desecration of the 
Jewish Sabbath led to the demoralization and over- 
throw of Jewish national life. The loss of the moral 
values, which the proper observance of the Sabbath 
had given them, left them a prey to all the vices of 
the surrounding nations. When their Sabbath was 
gone they fell. They could not build up and 
strengthen national virtue without it. On this point 
history has repeated itself, as often as any nation that 
has known the uses of the Sabbath has abandoned 
those uses. No other fact of history has been put 
on record more distinctly than this. Vice, immoral- 
ity, lawlessness, debauchery of every kind, enter the 
national life as fast as the Christian Sabbath is given 
up. France, with her culture, her bravery, her love 
of liberty, her military power, her heritage of soil, 
climate and great men, has found no resting-place, 



OF FRANKLIN, INDIANA. 



227 



no settled life, since she abandoned the command of 
God to " Remember the Sabbath-day, to keep it holy." 
But cast your eye across the English Channel, to the 
land of Sabbath observance. There is stability of 
government there. The stern men who through 
England, and Scotland especially, are often sneered 
at for their sturdy virtues are yet the men that furnish 
the material for stable government. When revolu- 
tions have come to those lands in the past they have 
brought a better life. The land of Knox, with its 
strict Sabbath observance, has furnished the solid 
character for continual progress in civil and religious 
life. Perhaps there is no spot on earth which more 
clearly illustrates the prophecy of the text: "Out of 
Zion shall go forth the law," than Scotland, where 
the doctrine and life of the Presbyterian Church has 
had its best development. 

It is easy in this volatile age to criticise the stern, 
honest, decided men of the Scottish churches, but it 
is not so easy to produce such men. They can not 
be made from the doctrines of naturalism. They were 
born of the creed that exalts God, acknowledges his 
authority over the life and conscience. The material 
of which are made such men as William the Silent, 
Luther, Calvin, Knox, Melville, Cromwell, Milton 
and Bunyan is not found in the liberalism of to-day. 
Though these men were not all Presbyterians, they 
were one in the Calvinistic system. Froude, whose 
peculiar religious views will not expose him to the 
charge of a bias in favor of " the severe doctrines," 
has well said: "The practical effect of a belief is the 
real test of its soundness." The same author, in his 



228 



FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH 



candid and able "Address before the Students of St. 
Andrews," having held a different creed all his life, 
makes the concessions to the Calvinistic system, 
which the facts of history force upon every honest 
mind. He says : " I am going to ask you to consider 
how it came to pass, that, if Calvinism is indeed the 
hard and unreasonable creed which modern enlight- 
enment declares it to be, it has possessed such singu- 
lar attractions in past times for some of the greatest 
men that ever lived, and how — being, as we are told, 
fatal to morality * * * the first symptom of 
its operation, wherever it was established, was to ob- 
literate the distinctions between sins and crimes, and 
to make the moral law the rule of life for States as 
well as persons. 

" I shall ask you why, if it be a creed of intellectual 
servitude, it was able to inspire and sustain the brav- 
est efforts ever made by man to break the yoke of 
unjust authority. When all else has failed, when 
patriotism has covered its face, and human courage 
has broken down * * * when intellect has yielded 
* * * when emotion and sentiment, and tender 
imaginative piety have become the hand-maids of 
superstition, and have dreamt themselves into forget- 
fulness that there is any difference between lies and 
truth, the slavish form of belief, Calvinism, in one or 
other of its many forms, has borne ever an inflexible 
front to illusion and mendacity, and has preferred 
rather to be ground to powder like flint, than to bend 
before violence or melt before enervating temptation." 
This impartial testimony of Mr. Froude was given in 
the face of his own earlier prejudices, and after a care- 



OF FRANKLIN, INDIANA. 



229 



ful survey of the history of his own nation, and of 
the influence of Calvinism on the world since the 
Reformation. 

It is the testimony of history. Had the Presby- 
terian Church been ever true to her mission, had she 
spent less time in the ecclesiastical enforcement of her 
doctrines, and more in that enforcement which her 
life would secure, her power over the world would 
have been even greater than it has been. 

Thus it has not seemed to me out of place, in con- 
nection with the half-century celebration of the or- 
ganization of this church, to call to mind the faith 
and life which planted this church in the wilderness 
fifty years ago, and which has maintained the institu- 
tions of the gospel until this present time. 

With no zeal for that denominationalism which is 
uncharitable and even divisive, which would build 
itself at the expense of what is beautiful and true in 
every Christian denomination, we yet cleave to the 
system of doctrine which has made itself felt in the 
past, and which is a power in the present. 

Let us remember that while there can be no life 
without doctrine — for " he that cometh to God must 
believe that he is " — yet there may be doctrine with- 
out life, there may be a dead faith. Hence we shall 
only prove ourselves worthy of our fathers, and of 
Him who is the Father of all renewed souls, in pro- 
portion as we live lives which will commend the 
gospel of God. It is life that God demands of us 
to-day, not only profession but life — stern, honest, true, 
godly life ; so that " Out of Zion shall go forth the 
law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem." 
22 



APPENDIX. 



APPENDIX. 



NOTE. — The following list of names was prepared by Judge D. 
D. Banta, while preparing the " Historical Address" for the half- 
century meeting. As it is a paper of great interest and value, he 
has kindly consented to furnish it as an appendix to the present 
volume. Indeed, to those who have been members of the First 
Presbyterian Church of Franklin, this list of names will have a 
value scarcely less than the preceding pages of this volume. 

S. E. WISHAKD. 



A list of the names of the members of the Pres- 
byterian Church of Franklin, entered in the order of 
their admission, in which is shown whether they were 
admitted on certificate or on examination, and the 
time when any of them died or were dismissed, in so 
far as the church records disclose these facts. 



DATE. 

1824 
Nov. 30 

, it 

it 

tt 



1825 
June 25 



1827 

May 30 

a 

n 
it 
a 



1828 
Jan. 30 

a 

March 3 



NAMES. 



Greorge King 
Eleanor King 
Joseph Young 
Nancy Young 
David McCaslin 
Jane his wife 

Simon Covert 
Mary his wife 
Mrs Margaret G-ilcrees 

Patsy Freeman 
Mrs. Jane Voorheis 
Mrs. Ann Covert 
John Henderson 
Mary Henderson 
John Covert 
Catharine his wife 

John Campbell 
Agnes his wife 
Samuel Johnson 
Susanah his wife 



How 
Ad- 
mitt'd 



ex. 



cer. 

II 



ex. 



DIED. 



April 7, '31 
June 17, '30 

Sept., 1827 
Oct., 1828 



DISMISSED. 



Sept. 2, '52 

a 

Oct. 13, '51 
May 13, '31 



May 13, '31 
Dec. 13, '35 

u 

Sept. 27, '33 



(233) 



234 



FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH 



DATE. 

1829 
Jan. 10 

a 
a 
a 
tt 
a 
it 



Jan. 12 



June 

tt 
u 
a 



August 



NAMES. 



1830 
Feb.4S. 



April 24 



William Magill 
Sarah his wife 
Elizabeth his d'ghter 
Mrs. Rachel Voorheis 
John Voorheis 
Hannah his wife 
Dorcas Voorheis 
Peter Lagrange 
Lana his wife 
Mary Demaree 
David McCaslin 
Mary his wife 
Mrs. Lydia Herriott 
Mrs. Mary Luyster 
Caleb Vac nay 
Mahala his wife 
Mrs. Margaret Smiley 
Mrs. Charity Bergen 
Robt. Gilcrees 
Elizabeth his wife 
Stephen Luyster 
Mrs. N. Rutherford 
Daniel Covert 
Rachel his wife 
Thomas Henderson 
Mary his wife 
Isaac Vannuys 
Ellen his wife 
Mrs. Eliza Williams 
Eli Gilcrees 
Charlotte his wife 

Saml. Vannuys 
Anna his wife 
Peter Demaree 
Newton McCaslin 
Martha his wife 



How 
Ad- 
mitted 



cer. 

tt 
tt 
a 
a 
tt 
tt 
it 
a 
u 

ex. 



cer. 



ex 
cer 



DIED. 



Nov. 1, '73. 



Dead 



Feb. 16, '30 
May 17, '43 



Mar. 28, '32 



DISMISSED. 



May 13, '31 

a 

May 13, '31 

(i 

May 13, '31 

a 

U 

May 13, '31 

Oct. 10, '56 

u 

May 13, '31 

May 13, '31 

it 

a 
it 

a 
a 

Sept. 16, '54 
May 13, '31 



OF FRANKLIN, INDIANA. 



235 



DATE. 



April 24 



July IS. 
Nov. 7 

a 
ft 
tt 
u 



Nov. 20 

u 

tt 
tt 



NAMES. 



1831 
May. 21 



David McCaslin, Sen. 
Mary his wife 
Saml. Mc Kinney 
Susanah his wife 
MillyMagill (colored) 
John B. Johnson 
Thomas Graham 
Polly his wife 
James H. Graham 
Polly R. Graham 
Saml. C. Graham 
Betsy his wife 
Cornelius Covert 
Jacob Covert 
Ann Covert 
Margaret Mitchell 
Rhoda H. Monfort 
Elizabeth Monfort 
Andrew Carnine 
Nancy his wife 
Theodore List 
Susan his wife 
Peter Bergen 
Anna his wife 

Archibald C. Graham 
Catharine King 
John Wilson, Sen. 
John Wilson, .Tun. 
Sally McCale 
Jane Wilson 
Samuel Allison 
Mary his wife 
Esther A. Wilson 
Alexander Wilson 
Catharine his wife 
Hannah Brice 
Mathew Thompson 



How 
Ad- 
mitted 



cer 

a 



ex 

u 

cer, 



"Mav 



ex 



DIED. 



16, '41 



Nov., 1830 



DISMISSED. 

Dec. 19, '50 
Feb. 15, '51 



May 13, '31 
1834 

ti 



1834 

it 

May 13, '31 



April 26, '45 
May 13, '31 



1834 
Dismissed. 

Sept. 29, '50 

ft 
it 

Dec. 23, '45 



236 



FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH 



DATE. 



Aug. 27 



Dec. 28 
1832 
Apr. 12 



Sep. 28 



1833 
Apr. 4 



Aug. 31 
Apr. 30 



u 

Pec 29 
1834 
Feb. 25 

u 

u 

Mar. 28 



NAMES. 



Eobt. Robb 
Mary Parr 
Catharine Banta 
Ann Eleanor Robb 
Mrs. AnnW.Monfort 



William G. Shellady 
Margaret Banta 
Elizabeth Shellady 
Catharine Thompson 
Ephraim Herriott 
Margaret his wife 
Eliza Jane Shellady 
Douglass Gr. Shellady cer 
William A. Ross 
Elizabeth his wife 
Mary Bergen 
John Young ex 
Abram S. Howsly cer, 
Jane B. Howsly 



H ow 
Ad- 
mitted 



cer. 



ex, 
cer, 



Nancy Thompson 
John McCord 
Elizabeth his wife 
Mary Wilson 
Elizabeth King 
James Kerr 
Elizabeth Kerr 
James McCaslin 
Elizabeth his wife 
Cornelius Hutton 

Mary C. King 
Mrs. Elizabeth Reese 
Mrs. Mary Decker 
John C. King 
Margaret Bergen 
Alexander Adams 



ex, 
cer, 

ex. 

cer. 

a 

n 

ex, 

u 

cer, 

ex, 
cer 

u 

ex, 
n 

cer 



DIED. 



May 3, '37 
Sept. 25, '42 

April 14, '46 



Dec. 27, '37 
Oct. 22, '33 



Aug., 1855 



DISMISSED. 



Nov. 7, '39 

Nov. 7, '39 
Sept. 22, '50 



Nov. 12, '58 



Apr. 11, '73 
Mar. 15, '44 
Sept., 1844 



1832 

April 4, '37 

u 

Feb. 23, '34 
April 13, '50 

Oct. 18, '45 



Oct. 13, '51 

April 11, '37 

May 16, '35 
April 26, '44 



OF FRANKLIN, INDIANA. 



237 



DATE. 



Mar. 28 



a 

Mar. 30 



Mar. 31 



li 

Nov. 1 



1835 
Apr. 25 



Apr. 26 
Oct. 30 

u 
a 



1836 
Apr. 13 
Apr. 29 



NAMES. 



Jane Adams 
James D. Shellady 
Margaret McKinney 
Mrs. Sarah Banta 
Edward Crow 
Mary A. his wife 
Sallie Hendricks 
Lydia Adams 
Sally Adams 
Marian Israel 
Elizabeth Adams 
Abdallah Thompson 
Sam. Watson Shellady 
Clelland Adams 
Hervey McCaslin 
Rachel Bergen 
Thomas Alexander 
Mary his wife 
Zebulon Wallace 

G-eorge Adams 
his wife 



How 
Ad- 
mi tt'd 



cer 

a 

ex 
<( 

cer. 

a 

ex 

11 



Elisha Thompson 
Hannah his wife 
Emily Thompson 
Zerelda Thompson 
Eli N. H. Adams 
John A. Magill 
Mary H. his wife 
Mrs. Nancy Yetrick 
Mrs. Marg. Howlett 
John Sharp 
Temperance his wife 
Harvey Sloan 

Jane Eckles 
Jane Allen 
G-arrett Ditmars 



cer, 



ex. 

u 

cer, 

u 

tt 
a 

ex. 
cer. 



DIED. 



April 9, '41 
1838 



ex. 
cer. 



June 19, '50 
Mar. 15, '39 



April 18, '39 
May 81, '44 



Oct. 13, '42 
August, '42 
Mar. 13, '41 
June 21, '45 



Aug. 8, '36 



Oct. 13, '74 



Oct. 4, '45 



DISMISSED. 



1851 
Nov. 10, '37 



April 24, '51 



Mar. 8, '37 



April 7, '38 



238 



FIRoT PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH 



DATE. 

Apr. 29 
Oct. 29 
1837 
Mar. 27 



Sep. 2 
Sep. 3 



Sep. 4 

a 

Dec. 3 



1838 

Jan 6 

ii 

Jan 7 
Apr. 7 

a 

Apr. 8 



May 6 

u 

July 1 

u 

July 21 
Oct. 13 
1839 
Jan. 19 



NAMES. 



Sarah his wife 
Dr. Saml. Bitchey 

Tunis Vannuys 
Catharine his wife 
Charity Vannuys 
John Vannuys 
John Henderson 
Isabella his wife 
Mrs. Mildd McCaslin 
David V. Demaree 
Anderson Wallace 
Mrs Mary lieid 
William McCaslin 
Elizabeth Smiley 
Elizabeth Thompson 
Jacob Young 
Sarah D. <\llison 
John Henderson 
his wife 



How 
Ad- 
mitted 



Allen McCaslin 
Abraham Bergen 
John Henderson 
Mary Sturgeon 
Liza Dawson(color'd) 
Madison Kelly 
Eliza his wife 
Jane Patterson 
Sophia Vestal (col'ed) 
Samuel C. Graham 
Elizabeth his wife 
Robert Jeffry 
Harriet his wife 
Elizabeth Young 
Rebecca Adams 



, Nathaniel Peppard 
Sarah his wife 



u 

ex. 
cer. 
ex. 
cer. 
ex. 

a 



cer. 



ex. 

a 



cer. 
ex. 
cer. 

a 

ex. 

u 

cer. 



ex. 



cer, 



DIED. 



Mar. 7, '47 
Nov. 3, '44 
April 11/39 



Aug 29, '40 
1874 

June 3, '39 



Sept., 1850 
Sept. 27, '43 



DISMISSED. 



April 7, '38 
April 11/37 



Oct. 1, '48 
April; 8, '50 



Feb. 27, '41 



Mar. 19, '55 
Feb. 27, '41 
Dec. 17, '42 

Aug. 8, '50 



Nov. 30, '45 
Oct., 1856 



April 17, '42 

a 
(( 

Oct. 22, '43 



OP FRANKLIN, INDIANA. 



239 



DATE. 



Jan. 19 



Jan. 20 

Apr. 19 

a 

Apr. 20 
Apr 21 
July 21 



July 22 
July 24 



July 26 
July 27 



July 28 



NAMES. 



Aug. 12 
Sep. 22 
Oct. 11 

u 

1840 
Aug. 15 
Sep. 13 
Nov. 14 



Mary A. McCaslin 
Wiiliam Kelly 
John Adams 
Harvey B. Shellady 
John Jackson 
.Rebecca his wife 
I Mrs America Sloan 
jZerelda Henderson 
I John Herriott 
Elizabeth his wife 
James Henderson 
George Bergen 
Jane Thompson 
Nancy A. McKinney 
S. Amanda Shellady 
Cynthia Ann Shaffer 
Mrs. Mary Murphy 
Jane Wallace 
John McCaslin 
Catharine Boss 
Geo. Adams, Jr. 
Elizabeth Adams 
Elizabeth McKinney 
Elizabeth Herriott 
Mary E. McCaslin 
Margaret McCaslin 
Is ac P. Monfort 
George F. McCaslin 
Cornelius D.Vannuys 
Alexander Wilson 
Stephen Dickerson 
Hervey McCaslin, Jr. 
Mary Jane Graham 

Mary Ann Thompson 
Mrs. H. Mitchell 
Mrs. Eliza Shellady 



How 
Ad- 
mitt'i 



ex. 



cer. 

u 



cer. 

ex. 

a 

u 

cer. 
ex. 



u 

cer, 



DIED. 



Dead 
Feb. 15, '41 
Dead 



Oct. 8, '45 

Feb. 20, '44 
Dead 



Sept. 26, '50 



May 9, '40 



DISMISSED. 



Mar. 14, '68 



Oct. 8, '50 
Oct 25, '43 



June 13, '47 



June 4, '69 
Dec, 1851 

April 24, '51 

a 

April 13, '50 
April 23, '60 

July 23, '53 

Oct. 13, '51 
July 27, '45 
Jan. 8, '44 

Oct 13, '51 
April 26, '45 



Jan. 8, '44 



240 



FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH 



DATE. 
1841 

Feb. 27 

a 

June 18 
June 19 



1842 
Jan. 15 



Jan. 16 
Jan. 17 
Feb 2 



NAMES. 



Feb. 5 



How 
Ad- 
nltt'a 



Feb. 6 

it 
tt 

Feb. 9 

tt 
a 

Feb. 13 
Feb. 16 



Mrs Marg. McCaslin 
Elizabeth Thompson 
Dr. John H. Donnell 
Hannah Deniott 
Mrs. Mary Gibson 
James Fletcher 
Mary his wife 

Mrs Alma Sickles 
Saml. E. Barr 
Catharine Hoover 
Robert Henderson 
Martha Adams 
Elizabeth Aten 
Aaron Aten 
Margaret his wife 
Thomas R Alexander 
Lawrence Monfort 
Mary Ann Headly 
Adrian Aten 
Joanna Bergen 
Catharine Vannuys 
Martha Black 
Emeline Vannuys 
Easter McCaslin 
S muel Lambertson 
John Logan 
John Herriott 
Harvey L Gibson 
Caroline Yannuys 
James H. L Vannuys 
John W. Getty 
William C. Wilson 
Duane Hicks 
Mary Bergen 
T. H. Alexander 
LafayetteW. Fletcher 



ex. 
tt 



cer. 

a 



ex, 



a 
tt 
tt 

cer, 

ex, 

tt 

it 
tt 
u 
tt 
tt 
a 
it 
n 
it 
n 
tt 
tt 
tt 
a 
tt 



DIED. 



Oct. 1844 
Aug. 29, '50 



Sept 20, '45 



DISMISSED. 



July 27, '45 
April 23, '60 



Feb. 22, '43 
July, 1843 
Feb. 19, '43 
April 13, '50 

Jan. 8, '44 

Sept. 7, '56 

tt 

Sept. 4, '42 
April 13, '50 

Jan. 2, 51 
Oct. 13, '51 
Jan. 21, '66 

Aug. 16, '45 
Oct. 13 '51 



Oct. 10, '44 

Jan. 4, '48 
July 10, '56 

Oct., 1849 
Sept. 4, '42 



OF FRANKLIN, INDIANA. 



241 



NAMES. 



Ellen Jane Thompson 
Emily Alexander 
John Thompson 
Geo. H. Jeffry 
John H. Alexander 
Hannah Aten 
James F. Young 
S A. E. Henderson 
John Ritchey 
Nancy McCord 
John Prosser 
Sarah his wife 
Robt. Mcllhany 
James Wilson 
Minerva Hicks 
James R. Alexander 
Rebecca his wife 
John McLean 

Mary Ann Allison 
James Ferguson 
Hester Ferguson 
Jabez B. Bright 
Mary Eliza his wife 
Mrs. Martha Allis (Elli8?) 

Albert Banta 
Martha his wife 
Mrs. S McCracken 
Joseph Henderson 
Elizabeth Ellis 
Margaret Ann Ellis 
Hetty Thompson 
Wasson McCaslin 
W. McCalla Moreland 

Mrs . Sarah Henderson 



mitt'd 


DIED. 


DISMISSED. 


ex 

a 

a 




Feb. 10, '51 
Sept. 4, '42 


a 

CI 

u 
u 
u 
u 




Sept. 4, '42 
Mar. 18, '49 
Opt 1849 
Aug. 26, '47 


cer. 

it 
tt 




April 6, '48 
Oct. 25, '45 

u 


ex. 

tt 
a 




(< 

Dec. 3, '62 


cer. 
(< 




Sept. 4, 1842 

a 


tt 




July 27, '45 


ex. 

cer. 

a 


Feb , 1851 


Feb. 1, 1849 

a 


ex. 

tt 


April 14, '43 




u 




Dec. 18, '59 


cer. 

it 

tt 


Aug. 17, '45 


Dismissed 


u 

ex. 

u 
it 




Aug. 8, '50 
Dec. 18, '59 
Jan. 30, '50 


(I 
cer. 


Aug. 25, '45 




ex. 




Aug. 8,1850 



242 



FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH 



DATE. 

1846 
Apr. 4 



1847 
Jan. 23 
Mar. 10 



NAMES. 



Mar. 14 

Mar. 21 

c< 

Mar. 26 
Mar. 28 
Aug. 28 



u 

1848 
Mar. 5 
Oct. 10 
Dec. 24 

1849 
Feb. 10 

u 

Feb. 11 

u 

Apr. 9 



Peter H, Banta 
Mitchel Henderson 
John McCaslin 
John Kenton 
Martha his wife 

Mrs. Rachel Gilcrees 
Allen McCaslin, Jr. 
Samuel Allison, Jr. 
Eliza J. McKinney 
Dorothy J. Aten 
Margaret Ann Aten 
Amanda T. Hutton 
Leander D. Shellady 
Henry Goodman 
James Wilson 
Wm. D. McCaslin 
David A. McCaslin 
Robert Young 
Malcolm McLean 
Geo. Allison 
Mary Ann McCaslin 
Mrs. Jane High 
Geo. Bergen 
Margaret his wife 
Jane Annesly 
Mary Ray Monfort 

Mrs. Mary Ann Saye 
Robert Overstreet 
Mrs. ™ Mathews 

Christiana Banta 
Mrs. Sarah Carson 
Moses Hines 
Sarah his wife 
John McClain 



How 
., Ad- 
mitted 



ex 



cer. 



ex. 

tC 



DIED. 



ex, 
cer, 



Sept., 1856 



1857 



DISMISSED. 



Aug. 8,1850 
June 4, 1869 
Feb. 10, '57 



Sept. 16, '54 



1851 

Dismissed 
Mar. 9,1853 
Oct. 13, '51 
Feb. 10, '57 

Mar. 19, '55 

Sept. 17, '54 
Oct,, 1849 

April 13, '50 



Aug. 19, '49 

u 

Nov. 28, '48 
Sept. 22, '50 

Sept. 11, '55 
Aug. 11, '52 



June 24, '49 



Dec. 1, 1852 



OF FRANKLIN, INDIANA. 



243 



June 29 



NAMES. 



Hampton Terrill 
Hannah his wife 
Marg. Eliz. McCaslin 

Mrs.M. J.McDermed 
Mrs. A. McCaslin 
Mrs. C. McClain 
Sarah J. Hutton 
Mrs. Sarah A. Gibson 
Duncan McLean 
Mrs. Rebecca Lowe 
Mrs. S. McKee 
missS. M. Breckenridge 
Mrs. Paulina Logan 

Mary Ann Hamilton 

Mrs. Zeiglar 

John P. Banta 
Catharine his wife 
Christiana Banta 
Magdalena Peterson 
Joseph List 
Mrs. Sarah List 
Wm. H. Manwarring 
Mary E. Quinn 
Mrs. Susan Bruner 
Richard T. Overstreet 
Mary E. Overstreet 
Wm. B. List 
James R. Jackson 
James Dunlap 

Dunlap 

Sarah Dunlap 

John Vannoy 
Mary Vannoy 
Sarah M. Fletcher 
Lydia Ann Banta 



How 
Ad- 
mitt' d 



ex. 

it 

cer. 

« . 

ex. 

a 

cer. 



ex. 

cer. 

u 

a 
a 
a 

ex. 
cer, 
ex. 

cer. 
ex, 



cer, 



DIED. 



April, 1871 
Dead 



Deceased 



Deceased 



DISMISSED. 



Sept. 17, '54 



Oct. 13, '51 
Dec. 1, '52 
Oct. 13, '51 

Jan. 13, '51 
Jan. 9, 1855 
April 23, '60 
Jan. 3, 1855 
Oct. 10, '56 



Sept. 16, '54 

Nov. 5, 1859 

<( 

Dec. 30, '65 



Aug. 28, '53 
Aug. 29, '52 

Sept., 1855 



July 4, 1852 
Mar. 9,1853 
Feb. 19, '65 

Dismissed 

Mar. 18, '54 



244 



FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH 



DATE. 



Mar. 4 



13 



Mar. 21 

Apr. 10 

a 

Apr. 12 



NAMES. 



Rachel Hurl 
Rachel A. McCaslin 
Margaret Herriott 
Mary Eliz. Aten 
Emily Sloan 
Maria Bright 
Emily McCaslin 
Johnson List 
John W. Banta 
Samuel Wilson 
H. B. Morehouse 
Neelia Morehouse 
Nancy J. McCollough 
Cynthia Doss 
James A. Shellady 
Harvey L. Bergen 
Mary High 
Rebecca Banta 
Greo. H. Gilcrees 
Elizabeth McCaslin 
Heneage B. Finch 
John Carson 
David McCaslin 
J. Bethuel McCaslin 
Marg J. Alexander 
Catharine List 
Eliz. McCollough 
Jacob G-. Aten 
Mary Jane Aten 
Julia Ellen Yannuys 
V. B. McCaslin 
Ephraim Jeffry 
Mary Jane Jeffry 
Elias Franklin Remly 
Samuel S. Marrs 
John Philips 
Elizabeth J. Philips 
Samuel C. Dunn 
Mrs. Martha A. Dunn 



How 
Ad- 
mitted 



ex. 



cer. 

K 



DIED. 



Dead 
Dead 
Dead 



Dead 



Deceased 



DISMISSED. 



Dismissed 

Dismissed 
Sept.7,1852 
Mar. 4,1857 

Aug.6,1862 
Mar. 19, '55 



Mar. 18, '54 

Mar. 19, '55 
Sept. 16, '54 



Mar. 19, '55 
Aug. 5, 1859 

a 

May 6, 1857 



Dismissed 
Mar. 19, '55 
Dismissed 

u 

Mar. 18, '51 



OP FRANKLIN, INDIANA. 



245 



NAMES. 



Maria M. McQuinn 
Alexander McCaslin 
John G-. Bell 
Mrs. Ann Bell 
Mary Yanarsdall 
Dr. John Bitchey 
Mary Ritchey 
Cyrus Wick 
David W. Walker 
Marg. M. McQuinn 

William Bissett 
S. J. West 
Margaret Farquher 
Lawrence P. Bitchey 
John P. Wilson 
Mathew Hazlett 
Marg. Ann his wife 
Leander D. Shellady 
John Alexander 
John Fletcher 
Thomas Morrisson 
James C. McGuire 

McGuire 

Thomas A. McCaslin 
William B. Ellis 
Saml. C. Herriott 
Henry Service 
Martha Service 
Bebecca Ditmars 
Martha J. Thompson 
W. C. Newcomb 
Isaac Covert 
Eliza J. Knisell 
David B. Alexander 
Saml. C. Hamilton 
Mary Bissett 
John Zeigler 



I How 
Ad- 

mitt'd 


JJlJiiJJ. 


r\yo TIT lQOTl"n 


ex. 

cer. 

« 




(Jet. Id, 51 

Dismissed 

it 


u 
a 
it 




Nov. 22, '54 

a 


a 
a 

ex. 




Dismissed. 
July 23, '53 
Aug. 29, '52 


a 
tt 




Clot 98 'ftfi 


a 
a 

cer. 

a 




June 9, 1855 
Oct. 23, '58 
Mar. 19, '55 


a 
a 

ex. 

it 

tt 

a 

u 




May 6, 1857 

Mar. 19, '55 

Mar. 19, '57 

Mar. 19, '55 

Oct. 23,' '53 
a 


a 
it 


Feb. 15, '57 


May 6, 1857 


it 




Mar. 19, '57 


cer. 
it 

a 

ti 


Deceased 


Mar 3 18^5 


tt 

a 

ex. 
it 




Mar. 19, '55 
May 6, 1857 
Feb. 15, '73 


a 
a 
a 




Oct. 28, '66 
Sept. 16, '54 



246 



FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH 



DATE. 



Mar. 23 

a 

Mar. 26 

it 

Mar. 28 

Mar. 31 

a 

July 23 



1854 
Mar. 18 



June 10 



Sep. 16 
tt 

a 

a 

Dec. 16 



NAMES. 



James Gilcrees 
Saml. Khinehart 
Isaac Bergen 
John Ellis 
Margaret Covert 
Mary Jane Allison 
Agnes P. Stivers 
James Park 
Elizabeth his wife 
Mary Jane Park 

Theophilus Crosby 
Mrs. Phoeba Crosby 
Mrs. Ann Brady 
Ellen Hose 
David W. Walker 
Nancy S. Demaree 
Thomas Boyd 
Catharine Boyd 
Elizabeth J. Boyd 
Mary E. Boyd 
James W. Young 
Mary E. Young 
Joseph Bogart 
Nancy Bogart 
Sarah McCool 
Sarah Bergen 
Elizabeth J. Shellad; 
G-. M. Overstreet 
Dorothy Jane Lowe 
Mrs. S. L. Overstree 
Wasson McCaslin 
Jane his wife 
Mrs. Eliz. Sample 
Margaret Say 
Mary C. Taylor 
Mary Adams 
Eliza C. Hunter 



How 
Ad- 
mitt'd 


DIED. 


DISMISSED. 


ex. 

tt 
a 
n 
a 

it 




it 

iudy o, loo t 
Jan. 9, 1859 
Jan. 3, 1855 
May 6, 1857 


Li 

cer. 

C i 




Mar. 29, '56 

a 


ii 




June 17, '63 


ii 
ii 




Sept. 23, '55 

a 


ii 
ii 




Mar. 19, '55 


ii 

ii 
it 
ii 


Deceased 


Mar. 19, '55 

a 
a 


ii 
ii 




a 


ii 
ii 

a 




Oct. 17, '55 
July 10, '56 


a 
tt 

ex. 

tt 




Jan 2 18^9 

O all. — , lu«'i7 

May 6, 1857 


a 
a 




June 10, '54 


cer. 

it 






(( 

ex. 
cer. 

a 




Sept. 11, '55 


a 







OF FRANKLIN, INDIANA. 



247 



DATE. 

1855 
Jan. 3 
Mar. 3 



June 9 



u 

1856 
Mar. 29 



Mar. 3 
Mar. 4 
July 10 



Sep. 7 
Nov. 22 



Nov. 24 
1857 
Mar. 14 
June 3 

u 

July 11 
Oct. 1 

u 

Nov. 6 

a 

1858 
Feb. 20 

a 

Feb. 22 



NAMES. 



Mrs. R. A. Allison 
James F. Bogart 
Wm. T. Bogart 
Joseph C. Thompson 
Martha H. Bergen 
Catharine Aten 
Nancy Young 
Charlotte Young 
Martha A. Young 
Martha E. Johnston 

Daniel Hays. 

Mrs. Totten 

Adam Dunlap 
Geo. W. Totten 
Mrs. Martha Freeman 
Naomi Fisk 
Dr. Geo. W. Riddle 

Mrs. Murphy 

Nisa Jane White 
Garrett C. Bergen 
Richard Verbryke 
Elizabeth Verbryke 
James W. Hess 

Mrs. Mary St. John 
Smith Williams , 
Marietta Williams : ::: 
Mrs. Frances Waters 
Henry Henderson 
Mrs. E. Henderson 
David D. Banta 
Melissa E Banta 

Nelson Carnine 
Mrs. C. Sneathen 
Mrs. L. McDermit 



How 
Ad- 
aitt'd 



ex, 



cer, 
it 



ex, 
cer 



DIED. 



Sept. 22, '72 



DISMISSED. 



May 6, 1857 
Jan. 9, 1859 
Jan. 2, 1859 
Oct. 10, '.56 



May 6, 1857 
Sept. 23, '66 

Oct. 28, '66 

Nov. 22, '56 

it 

May 28, '63 



April 23, '60 



248 



FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH 



NAMES. 



James Norton 
W. A. Terhune 
Alma Terhune 
G-eorge McKeehan 
Thomas A. Jeffry 
Wm, St. John 
Mrs. Anna Adams 
Sarah Bean 
Harriet Carpenter 
William Guinn 
John Q. Adams 
Mary Adams 
Sarah J. McCaslin 
Margaret E. Brewster 
Angeline Dunlap 
Esther Keed 
Henrietta Sharp 
Mary F. McCaslin 
Lucy E. McCaslin 
Mrs. Jane Vawter 
John G. Moorehouse 
Julia A. Moorehouse 
M. A. McCollough 
Wm. G. Allison 
Cynthia J Green 
Wm. T. Henderson 
Mary Ellen Frary 
Catharine Frary 
James W. Sloan 
James B. Dunlap 
Henry Hamburg 
Christiana Hamburg 
Jane Needham 

Mrs. Farquhar 

Wm. H. Overstreet 
Joseph B. Dunlap 
Esther McLaughlin 
John C. McCaslin 



How 
Ad- 
mltt'd 



ex. 
cer. 

u 

ex. 

u 



cer 



DIED. 



June 8,1859 
Oct. 9, 1864 



Jan., 1859 



April 6, '62 
Feb., 1861 



May 22, '52 

Deceased 
May 30, '61 



Oct., 1859 



DISMISSED. 



Dismissed 
April 6, '62 



May 7, 1862 



Jan., 1860 
June 5, 1872 



Aug. 26, '66 



May 1,1869 



OP FRANKLIN, INDIANA, 



249 



DATE. 

Mar. 31 

a 

Apr. 1 

a 

Apr. 7 



Apr. 8 

it 

Apr. 11 



Apr. 17 



Nov. 12 
1859 
Jan. 9 

Feb. 5 

n 

u 
tl 



May. 14 



Dec. 5 



Dec. 18 



NAMES. 



John W. Branch 
John Allen Finch 
John J. Hamburg 
Hannah C. Crow 
GL P. Terrill 
Magdalene Terrill 
Mary Alma McCaslin 
Sarah Vawter 
Davis Terhune 
Ernest Minner 
Frederica Minner 
Jas. W. McCaslin 
Henry N. Bogart 
Saml. A. Adams 
Eliza J. McDowell 
Henry J. Fox 
Wm C. Crowell 
Almon L. Payne 
Susan M. Demott 
Saml. 0. Crowell 
Jane B. Crowell 
Isabella Allison 

Luther M. Sneathen 
Christian Wheatmire 
Frederica Wheatmire 
Mary J. St. Johns 
Samuel C. Dunn 
Martha A. Dunn 
Emily Overbay 
John McKeehan 
Margaret McKeehan 
Robert Charlton 
Martha P. Charlton 
Bone 



Letta Bone 
James M. Bone 
Letta Jane Bone 
Mrs. Hellen Pinkney 



How 
Ad- 
mitted 



(I 
tl 

a 
u 

cer 

a 
it 
a 
a 

ex. 

it 

cer, 



DIED. 



DISMISSED. 



Aug. 26, '66 
Feb. 16, '68 



Jan. 6, 1860 



Feb. 27, '70 



Feb. 19, '65 

tt 

June 8,1859 

t( 

Dec. 22, '67 
Dec. 3, 1862 



250 



FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH 



DATE. 



1860 
Jan. 22 

ii 

Jan. 25 

u 

Apr. 2 

u 

Apr. 23 

Ct 

(i 
(I 

Sep. 26 



NAMES. 



1861 
Jan. 26 



Feb. 4 
Feb. 13 

Feb 14 



Apr. 16 
May 4 
June 6 

a 

u 
a 

u 

a 

Nov. 16 



Dayton C Keer 
William Green 
Robt. L Bone 
James Shellady 
John Hider 
Hider 



Bergen 



Dr. Robert Charlton 
Martha P. Charlton 
Josiah Drake 
Eva J. Drake 
Mrs. Sarah E Woollen 
John P. Henderson 
Jane Henderson 

Mrs. Eliz. McNutt 
Mrs. Sarah Gibson 
Abram Bergen 
Mrs. S. A. E 
Alonzo N. Bergen 
W. W. Woollen 
George Herriott 
Mrs. Eliza Biker 
Martha Hunter 
Wm. E. Fisher 
Hattie Sloan 
Mary Nickerson 
Edward Hider 
Catharine High 
Josephine Morey 
Wm. E Guinn 
Peter Hageman 
Clarissa Hageman 
Catharine S. Cox 
Catharine Kyle 
Kata E. Kyle 
Bachel A. Stewart 
John Clark 



How 
Ad- 

mitt'd 



ex. 



Re- 
stored 

ex. 

« 

cer. 

u 



DIED. 



1861 

Dec. 1, 74 



ex. 



a 
cer. 

Re- 
stored 

cer 

u 



July 16, '61 

Nov., 1861 
July 31, '64 



DISMISSED. 



Nov. 30, 73 
Oct. 5, 1872 

June 17, '63 

U 

May 10, '66 
Dec. 22, '61 



Nov. 30, 73 
May 10, '66 



April 10/61 
Feb. 19, '65 

May 7, 1871 



July 31, '64 
Dec. 12, '61 

July 31, '66 



OF FRANKLIN, INDIANA. 



251 



DATE. 

Nov. 16 

u 

1862 
Feb. 15 

u 



NAMES. 



Mrs E. Jane Clark 
Mrs. N. A. Decker 



Caroline Heineken 
Mary Herriott 
Adelie Scull 
Geo. S. Mangum 
Samuel Covert 
Mrs. Eliza Shinn 
Mrs. H. M. Durbin 
Mrs. M. J. Toner 
Mrs. VJary A. Adams 
Mrs Angeline Saddler e 
Mrs. L. Overstreet 
Joseph Drake 
A. B. Hunter 
Samuel Fisher 
Rose Ann his wife 
Mrs, Caroline Roy 



Hoi 
Ad 
nitt'd 



cer 



DIED. 



R. H. Simpson 
MissA.E.Falk(ner?) 
Miss A. E, Coon 
Mrs; Elizabeth Clark 
Mrs Mary A. Turner 
Jane Stevens 
Margaret McQuiston 
Sylvester Bergen 
Mary L. Hess 
Albert Banta 
Mary Jane Banta 
Nancy M. Freeman 
Irene Overstreet 
Anna M. Overstreet 
Mollie M. Heineken 
Ella Sloan 
Cornelia Overstreet 
Nancy M. Herriott 
John A. Terrill 



cer. 
ex. 
cer 



ex 



cer. 

(< 

ex, 
(< 

u 

a 

a 

cc 

cc 

u 



Deceased 



1863 



DISMISSED. 



July 15, '67 

Mar. 26, 71 
Mar. 20, '64 

Aug. 7,1862 

July 31, '64 

July 7, 1866 
May 24, '72 
1865 



Jan. 10, '64 
Nov. 4, 1867 

Sept. 18, '64 

Feb. 13, '73 
June, 1867 

May 28, '63 
July 1,1867 

a 

Sept. 23, '70- 



252 



FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH 



DATE. 



Jan. 18 



Jan. 23 



Jan. 24 
Jan. 25 
Jan. 26 

u 

Feb. 4 



Feb. 11 



Feb. 25 
Apr. 5 



Apr. 13 
May 10 
June 27 



Sep. 2 
Oct. 31 

a 

1864 
Jan. 10 
Jan. 30 



NAMES 



How 
Ad- 
mitt' d 



W. T. Keay 
Emma N. Heineken 
Mollie E. Smith 
Mary A. Dunn 
Electa M. Terrill 
Hattie E. Williams 
Cynthia A. Hall 
Lydia A Dunlap 
Clarinda Ritchie 
Mrs. C. B. Marrs 
Mrs. M. J. McCaslin 
Dr Pierson Murphy 
Wm. S McCaslin 
Sarah C. Ritchey 
Mrs. Elizabeth Way 
Mrs. Eliza Vawter 
Oscar F. Moore 
Wm. A. Alexander 
Ben Vawter 
Henry A. Fox 
A. C. Doss 
Aaron Vawter 
Mrs Caro. Gillespie 
Henry Itzenhizer 
Catharine his wife 
Florence E. Hamilton 
Mrs S. E. Ritchey 
G. S. Green 
Wm. J. Magill 
Mrs. M. A. Vannuys 
Henry Merle 
M. C. Vannuys 
Mrs. L. Woods 
Mrs. R. W Jackson 
Sarah C. Perrott 

MissW.M.W.Holbrook 
Anna R Morrison 



a 
it 
u 
it 
it 
It 

cer. 

it 

ex. 

cer. 
it 

ex. 
cer. 

ex. 
cer. 



DIED. 



Sept. 7, 71 



Dead 



DISMISSED. 



June 4, 1869 
Oct. 5, 1872 



Jan. 14, '66 
Sept., 1867 



Jan. 6, 1866 



June, 1867 



Aug. 9, 1873 



June, 1867 



OF FRANKLIN, INDIANA. 



253 



NAMES. 



John Howard 
Miss E. Cummins 
Aaron Vawter 
Grisela Hunter 
Alexander Dinwidie 
Mary Ann his wife 
John McCollough 
Mrs. Rachel Gwin 
Mrs. Mary E. Jones 
Mrs. Mary Ritchie 
Mrs. Maria Smiley 
Jacob Stevens 

James Calhoon 
Eliza his wife 
William A. Gilchrist 
William Davis 
Christina Williams 
Mary West 
Wm. M. Guinn 
John Bell 
Mrs Eleanor Bell 
Miss E. M. Bell 
Miss M. S. Bell 
A. M. Bell 
Jeremiah Long 

Dr. John H. Donnell 
Mrs. Eliz Donnell 
Marg. J. Donnell 
John M. Davis 
John Carson 
Conrad Merle 
Joseph A. Dunlap 
Miss L. E. Overstreet 
Mrs. Sarah E. Briggs 
Miss E K. Crowther 
Miss H. E. Allison 



How 
Ad- 
mitt'd 



cer. 

u 



ex. 
cer. 



ex, 



cer. 



DIED. 



u 
a 
u 

ex, 

u 



DISMISSED. 



Sept. 23, 70 



Aug. 26, '66 
Feb. 14, '70 



Sept. 1,1867 

u 
a 
u 
a 

July 12, '68 



July 7, 1866 



254 



FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH 



NAMES. 



Miss Kate McVey 
Wm, B. McCollough 
H. C. Allison 
Mrs. Marg. J. Bone 
Mrs. Mar g. Miller 
Leonard Frosh 
Frederica his wife 
Nicholas Miller 
Christina his wife 
Mrs. Margaret Nolle 
Amelia J. Overstreet 
Wm. D. Voris 
Cynthia Voris 
Hiram Henry 
Wm. S. Young- 
Mary Jane his wife 
John H. Vannuys 
J. 0. Martin 
Charity Martin 
Mary E. Martin 
John D. Martin 
W. H. McClannahan 
Rebecca his wife 
John C. Voris 
Amanda F. Bergen 
M. H. Belknap 
Ella Bell 
Saml. H. Covert 
Emily his wife 
Junius B. Bice 
Elizabeth his wife 
John Welsh 
Sibylla his wife 

William P. Todd 
Mrs. Jane B. Hood 
Mrs. M. J. Guinn 
Mrs. Lydia Herriott 



How 
Ad 
mitt'd 



ex. 

u 

U 

cer. 



ex 
<( 

cer 



DIED. 



Deceased 



ex. 
cer. 



DISMISSED. 



Feb. 16, '20 
Dec. 22, '67 



Jan. 27, '67 

H 

May 9, 1873 

u 

Oct. 3, 1873 
Jan. 5, 1868 



June 21, '68 
Sept. 1,1867 



June 21, '68 

u 

Mar. 8, 1873 



OF FRANKLIN, INDIANA. 



255 



DATE. 



May 10 



June 
July 2 
Aug. 20 



Sep. 1 

it 

Sep. 30 
Nov. 4 



Dec. 22 
1868 
Jan. 5 
Jan. 10 
Jan. 15 



Jan. 26 



Jan. 30 



Feb. 2 



NAMES. 



J. M. Crowell 
Anna Garnett 
W. A. Terhune 
Mrs. Alma his wife 
John Applegate 
Mrs Eliz. Applegate 
Mrs. Joseph. Taylor 
George W. Yoris 
A. S. liominger 
Amanda Rominger 
Emily Rominger 
Adelaide Rominger 
Mrs. Jane Fox 
Mrs. Susanah Dolbear 
Mrs. Henry Service 
Mrs. Cath. Jenkins 
Mrs. Martha Yoris 
Mrs. Chris. Evans 
Cornelius Yoris 
Mrs. Florence Draper 

Mrs. M. McClellan 
Mrs. D. A. McCaslin 
Or en C. Dunn 
T. H. Hyronimous 
F. G. H. Frosh 
Mrs Mary J. St. John 
E. C. Miller 
Emma Minner 
Mrs C. F. McCaslin 
Catharine Drake 
Theoph. C. Donnell 
Mrs Louisa Subbe 
Mrs. Jane N. Allison 
Mary M. Pearce 
Mrs M. J. Williams 
Mrs. Sarah McCaslin 
Emma Terhune 
David L. Overbay 



How 
Ad- 
mi tt'd 



cer 



ex. 
cer. 



DIED. 



Jan. 2, 73 



DISMISSED. 



May 1,1869 



Feb. 1, 1870 



Nov. 6, 1870 
« 

u 



April 24, '70 



May 1, 1869 



Nov. 7, 1869 
June 14, '73 
April 24,70 



256 



FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH 



NAMES. 



Emma B. Welsh 
Ella J. Clark 
Louisa E. Minner 
Anna Miller 
Ezra Clark 
Rufus E. Rominger 
Florence A. Welsh 
Archibald A. Young 
John S. Harmon 
George A. McCaslin 
Christina Ellis 
William Conner 
Alice his wife 
Mary E. Stewart 
James Stewart 
John W. Stewart 
Mrs. Greorge Voris 

Julia N. McCollough 
Mary F. Gibson 
Dora Belle Gibson 
Sarah C. Allison 
Cyrena B. Goodman 
Lizzie M. Allison 
Ada Hamilton 
Edwin M. Mears 
Martha A. Morgan 
William D Voris 
William A. Gilchrist 
Mary B. his wife 
G. M. Overstreet, Jr. 
Alice R Palmer 
Martha M. Palmer 
Kittie E. Palmer 
Maggie A. Morehouse 
Mrs. George Glover 
Jacob T. Holstein 
Anna M. Holstein 



How 
Ad- 
mitted 



ex. 



cer. 



ex. 



cer. 



ex. 



cer. 
ex. 



DIED. 



Dec, 1872 



DISMISSED. 



June 21, '68 



Nov. 6, 1870 
June 21, '68 



June 14, '69 



Feb. 25, 72 
April 24,70 

Dec. 22, 72 



OF FRANKLIN, INDIANA. 



257 



NAMES. 



Eva Jones 

Mrs. Maria L. Vawter 
Mrs. Ann Remly 
A. J. Remly 
Edgar M. Overstreet 

Irene E. Vawter 
Maggie Hazlett 
Mary Miller 
William Philips 
Mattie Bergen 
Edgar D. Brewer 
Edwin Shaffer 
Lydia Shaffer 
John A. Allison 
Mary S. Moore 
Ida S. Moore 
Dora C. Mathes 
Georgia Ann Sloan 
Florence Isabel Jones 
Samuel P. Smiley 
James Gibson 
George Banta 
Hubert L. Overstreet 
Richard M. Herriott 
Ida H. Riker 
Margaret A. Drake 
Saml Chalmers Dunn 
Albert Lucke 
Mary Ormley 
Millie S. Overstreet 
Harry Lubbie 
George M. Dunlap 
E. 0. Halstead 
Mrs. M. J. Halstead 
Eliza Moore 
Mary Hider 



How 
Ad- 
mitt' d 



ex. 
cer. 



ex 



DIED. 



DISMISSED. 



Nov. 30, 73 



Feb. 16, '20 



258 



FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH 



NAMES. 



S. Wesly Martin 
Anna S. Martin 
Sander Buck 
Eleanor Buck 
Oliver H. P. Smiley 
James F. Jelleff 
Isaac M. Crowell 
Richard T. Taylor 
Mrs. Susan Bogart 
Harriet D McCaslin 
August Zeppenfelt 
Frederika Zeppenfelt 
Sarah J. Glover 
Rosanah Lucke 
Thomas McG-rath 
Mrs. F. C. McClellan 
William A. Gibson 
E. Gilbert McCaslin 
William 0. McCaslin 
Mrs.Lutitia McCaslin 
Harman H. Lubbie 
Sarah J. Overbay 
Strange A. Holman 
Jacob Holstein 
Daniel W. Herriott 
Ida Patterson 
Harlan P. Patterson 
Mrs. Catharine East 
Miss Sallie Brunger 
Hiram B. Cole 
Francis M. Severance 
Thomas M. Andrews 
William A. Haugh 
Charles Byfield 
George McCaslin 
Allen Dunn 
Thomas J. Halstead 
Morgan Jones 



Ad- 

mitt/d 


DIED. 


ex. 

a 




ii 
a 




a 




a 




u 




a 




a 




a 




n 




a 




cer. 




ex. 

a 








u 




a 




u 




ii 




ii 
ii 




ii 




a 




it 




a 




a 




a 




a 




a 




a 




a 




a 




a 




a 




u 




a 




a 





OF FRANKLIN, INDIANA. 



259 



DATE. 



Feb. 13 



Feb. 



Feb. 



Feb. 
Feb. 



14 



NAMES. 



16 



18 



20 



Feb. 27 
Mar. 13 
Mar. 24 
May 1 

it 
it 

Aug. 7 

u 

Sep. 4 

it 

Oct. 23 

tt 

1871 
Jan. 21 



Mar. 20 



Jauies K. Stewart 
Mrs Mary Payne 
Eliza Spratt 
Charles W. Marchent 
John Gr. Payne 
Ephraim Herriott 
Mary J. Herriott 
James H. Smith 
Greorge C. Mathews 
James Harlen 
Howard Sloan 
Franklin Hall 
Grussie Whitesides 
Mary J. Fletcher 
Hannah J. McKinney 
Charles Betts 
Mrs. Abagail Betts 
Robert A. Kelly 
Lydia A. Rutherford 
Nancy E. Rutherford 
Lawrence P. Ritchey 
William McQuinston 
Margaret his wife 
H. C. Chapman 
Rowena Chapman 
William Fisher 
S. Fisher his wife 

Mrs. S. C. Halstead 
Mrs. Angeline Voris 
Benjamin R. Perkins 
Mary his wife 
Maggie Allen 
John P. Henderson 
Jane Henderson 
Lewis N. Henderson 
Mrs. Fred. Berring 
Mrs. Rachel McLean 



How 
Ad- 
mitt' d 



ex. 



cer. 
tt 
n 
a 



ex 



cer, 



ex, 
cer, 



DIED. 



DISMISSED. 



Feb. 22, '73 



Feb. 22, '73 
April 20,73 



Jan. 26, '73 

it 

April 16,71 

it 

April 20,73 

a 

May 23, 73 

a 

Mar. 8, 1873 



260 



FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH 



NAMES. 



July 6 



Mn 



Daugherty 



How 
Ad- 
mitt'd 



Mrs. Mary Eoff 
William Greg£ 
Mary his wife 
Nancy Gregg 
Adelia Gregg 
Fidelia Gregg 
Richard H. Barnes 
Helen his wife 
Maggie G. Rodgers 

Mrs. S. E. Wishard 
Mary Agnes Wishard 
Florence Wishard 
Sarah T. Herriott 
Mrs. Elizabeth Voris 
Samuel M. Voris 
John W. Ransdall 
Mrs. Carrie Ransdall 
Mary Ann Mc Arthur 
Mrs. Eliz. McCaslin 
Thodosia Jeffry 
Matilda Brewer 
Elizabeth Pence 
Mary Perkins 
Lizzie Hazlett 
Milas Hendricks 
George L. Sherman 
Sue Crothers 
Anna Van Wye 
Alson Henderson 
Mrs. Ann Kelly 
Mrs. Julia Dunlap 
Mrs. M. Maud Searles 
Richard V. Ditmars 
Isaac N. Lagrange 
David Hanna 
Mrs. M. A.Dougherty 



cer. 

u 



DIED. 



Sept., 1875 



ex. 



ex. 
cer, 

u 

ex, 

u 
u 

cer. 



DISMISSED. 



Sept.2,1872 
April 26,72 



Oct. 3, 1873 
May 29, '72 



Feb. 25, '72 
May 23, '73 



Feb. 25, '72 



Nov. 30, '73 



* On Knowledge of his Keligious Character 



OF FRANKLIN, INDIANA. 



261 



NAMES. 



I Hon 
Ad- 
mitt' 



Mrs. Elizabeth Carr 
Mrs. Marg. Clemmer 
John Rhynearson 
Ella G. Case 
Mrs. Hen. Reynolds 
Wm. S. McCaslin 
Mrs. Inez U. Howe 
Robert M. Miller 
Mrs. — - Miller bis wife 

Laura Allen 
Grace Allen 
Mrs. Elizabeth Allen 
Mrs. Elizabeth Pence 
Jane Selfridge 
Rachel A. McCaslin 
Mrs. I. Hyronimous 
Lyman A. Frink 
Mrs. M. C. Hamilton 
Harry E. Hamilton 
Dr. John D. Vannuys 
Mollie Robins 
Anna Richardson 
John Terhune 
Laura Overbay 
Wm. M. Short 
Mrs. Mary Ann Short 
Mary Angeline Short 
Edward F. Blackburn 
Susan Barbour 
Louisa Barbour 
Sarah Martin 
Jacob Killinger 
Mrs. M. J. Severance 
Mrs. Eliz. Blackburn 
Benjamin W. Perkins 
Samuel Boon 
David Yandruver 



cer. 



Rein- 
stated 

cer. 



(C 

Rein- 
stated 

ex. 
cer. 

u 



ex, 



DIED. 



Dead 



April 29, 75 



DISMISSED. 



May 23, 73 



262 



FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH 



DATE. 



Mar. 1 



Mar. 8 



Mar. 24 

Apr. 4 

ii 

u 

a 
a 
it 
a 



Apr. 5 

May 5 

a 

May 14 



July 5 
Aug. 4 



Oct. 3 



NAMES. 



Grittie G. Freeman 
Mrs. Phoebe Snider 
Frankie Kestner 
James W. High 
Emma High 
Sarah Frame 
Mary J. McCaslin 
Tazewell Stewart 
Mary his wife 
William Bullock 
Jerome F. Ware 
Mary his wife 
Thomas McGuire 
George Robins 
Thomas Parish 
Selena Stewart 
Mrs. Marg. Demaree 
Mary J. Demaree 
Margaret Holstein 
Mary J. Vawter 
John F. McClellan 
Martha J. McClellan 
Mary C. McClellan 
Sopia Holstein 
Saml. H. Clemm 
Maggie Vanhusen 
Charles L. Vanhusen 
Robert A. Alexander 
Sarepta E. Alexander 
Clara A. Alexander 
Mrs. Rachel I. White 
George C. Adams 
Elizabeth Adams 
Hannah M. Adams 
Harvey Todd 
Marietta Adams 
Mrs. Mary Adams 
Emeline Brown 



How 
Ad- 
mitt 'd 



ex , 

* 

ex 

a 



a 
a 
a 
a 
u 
a 
a 
a 

cer 



cer 

n 

n 

a 
a 

ex. 

a 

cer, 

a 
a 
u 
a 



DIED. 



DISMISSED. 



April 4, 74 



* On Evidence of Christian Character. 



OF FRANKLIN, INDIANA. 



263 



How 
Ad- 
mitted 



DATE. 



Oct. 3 



Dec 27 

u 

1874 
Jan. 3 

Jan. 4 
Jan. 31 

u 

Mar. 2 

a 

Apr. 4 



May 4 
July 4 

Oct. 3 



NAMES. 



Charles D. Finney 
Mary E. his wife 
P. M. Thompson 
Mrs. A. Buckingham 
Emily Thompson 
J. H. McClannahan 
Dr. James Wood 

Prof. E.W.Thompson 
Mrs. M.W Thompson 
Mrs. Mary Vannuys 
Robert Taggart 
Nancy Taggart 
John Hite 
Mrs. Mary Hite 
Kate Ophelia Gibson 
William Todd 
Cynthia Todd 
Mrs A. B. Ditmars 
Mrs. Mary Johnson 
Dr M. T. Runnels 
Mrs. R. Williams 
William A. Grilchrist 
Mary V. his wife 



DIED. 



cer 

a 



ex. 
cer. 



DISMISSED. 



The foregoing list of names is believed to be as 
nearly complete as can be made from the church 
records. I find among the " dismissed," " sus- 
pended " and " died," the thirty-five names which do 
not appear on the above list. Of these six are males 
and the remainder, twenty-nine, are females. I think 
of these females at least three-fourths, and probably 
more, appear on the list under other names, by reason 
of marriage intervening between the time of joining 



264 FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH 

the church and being dismissed, or otherwise closing 
their membership. A few names may have been 
overlooked by me, but there can be no doubt that the 
records themselves are defective. They bear positive 
testimony to this fact in different places. 

D. D. B. 



OF FRANKLIN, INDIANA. 



265 



Table showing the whole number of male and fe- 
male communicants added to the church on examina- 
tion and on certificate during each 'year. 



YEAR 


Added on Examination. 


Added on Certificate. 


GRAND 
TOTAL. 


MALES. 


FEMALES 


TOTAL. 


MALES. 


FEMALES 


TOTAL. 


1824 




1 


1 


3 


2 


5 


6 


1825 








1 


2 


3 


3 


1826 
















1827 








2 


5 


7 


7 


1828 


2 


2 


4 








4 


1829 


8 


13 


21 


3 


7 


10 


31 


1830 


2 


1 


3 


12 


14 


26 


29 


1831 


1 


1 


2 


6 


11 


17 


19 


1832 


1 


1 


2 


4 


6 


10 


12 


1833 


1 


3 


4 


4 


4 


8 


12 


1834 


5 


10 


15 


6 


5 


11 


26 


1835 


2 


1 


3 


3 


7 


10 


13 


1836 




1 


1 


2 


2 


4 


5 


1837 


3 


3 


6 


5 


7 


12 


17 


1838 


3 


4 


7 


3 


5 


8 


15 


1839 


12 


17 


29 


4 


2 


6 


35 


1840 




1 


1 


1 


1 


2 


3 


1841 


1 


4 


5 


1 


1 


2 


7 


1842 


23 


17 


40 


3 


4 


7 


47 


1843 


1 


2 


3 


1 


1 


2 


5 


1844 


1 


3 


4 


3 


2 


5 


9 


1845 




1 


1 








1 


1846 


3 




3 


1 


1 


2 


5 


1847 


10 


6 


16 


1 


4 


5 


21 


1848 




1 


1 


1 


1 


2 


3 


1849 




1 


1 


3 


4 


7 


8 


1850 




3 


3 


1 


6 


7 


10 


1851 


3 


4 


7 


4 


7 


11 


18 



266 



FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH 



Ph 

<1 


Added on Examination. 


Added on Certificate. 


A hi 




















MALES. 


FEMALES 


TOTAL. 


MALES. 


FEMALES 


TOTAL, 


M-t <_) 

3 Eh 


185.4 


18 


24 


42 


6 


5 


11 


5d 


185d 


17 


7 


24 


7 


6 


13 


37 


18o4 


1 


4 


5 


6 


16 


22 


27 


1855 








3 


5 


8 


o 
8 


185b 


3 




3 


4 


6 


10 


1 o 
Id 


1857 








3 


5 


8 


o 
8 


1858 


28 


31 


59 


2 


2 


4 


bd 


1859 


3 


3 


6 


4 


6 


10 


lb 


18b0 


4 


1 


5 


4 


4 


8 


1 o 
Id 


18bl 


4 


5 


9 


5 


11 


16 


Z5 


18bZ 


1 


5 


6 


4 


6 


10 


lb 


18bd 


14 


33 


47 


3 


4 


7 


o4 


1861 




4 


4 


4 


6 


10 


14 


1855 








7 


6 


13 


1 o 
Id 


18bb 


7 


6 


13 


14 


17 


31 


A A 

44 


18b7 


1 


1 


2 


6 


16 


22 


Z4 


18b8 


12 


16 


28 


2 


5 


7 


dD 


1869 


4 


14 


18 


3 


4 


7 


25 


1870 


52 


39 


91 


2 


3 


5 


96 


1 871 




3 


3 


5 


12 


17 


20 


1872 


4 


7 


11 


7 


18 


25 


36 


1873 


16 


23 


39 


12 


22 


34 


73 


1874 




1 


1 


6 


9 


15 


16 


Totals 


271 


328 


599 


196 


305 


501 


1100 



OP FRANKLIN, INDIANA 



267 



Table showing the whole number of male and fe- 
male communicants added to the church on examina- 
tion and on certificate during each pastorate, and 
length of time of each pastorate. 





Added on 
Examination 


Added on 
Certificate. 


)TAL. 


^H 
O 


lervice, 


PASTORATE. 




GO 






go 
W 






a> 




ALES 


Hi 

< 


[)TAL. 


ALES 


Hi 

H 


3TAL 




H 


astor: 




n 


h 


En 




HI 


Eh 






Ph 


Preceding a Pastorate 


12 


17 


29 


13 


20 


33 


62 






Dr Monfort's 


67 


82 


149 


61 


87 


148 


297 


20 


yrs. 


Rev. Jas. A. McKee's 


74 


70 


144 


38 


56 


94 


238 




« 


Rev. A B. Morey's 


95 


126 


221 


61 


92 


153 


374 


10J 




Rev. S. E Wishard's 


20 


31 


51 


25 


49 


74 


125 


3 






268 


326 


594 


198 


304 


502 


1096 





268 



FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH 



The following is a list of members who have been 
dismissed, or have died, or whose names have been 
stricken from the rolls of the church, as shown by 
the records, but whose names do not appear other- 
wise as members upon the said records. 

Sally Allison (formerlyG-reen) Deceased 1847 

William Kelly Name struck off Feb. 1, 1849 

Sarah McAlpin Dismissed April 13,1850 

Her mother " " " 

Lawrence Monfort's wife " " " 

Eleanor Jane Grreen Name struck off Feb. 10, 1851 

Mary Ann Farnsworth " " " " 

Mrs. Sarah J. Bingham Dismissed April 5, 1852 

Margaret Sibert " ' July 23, 1853 

Rachel How " OcK 30, " 

Jane Logan " April 19,1857 

Mrs. L. J. Kelly " < Dec. 12, 1861 

Jane E. Rankin " ' Mar. 11, 1863 

Mrs. Eliz.Dunlap (Yannuys?) " Feb. 19, 1865 

Mrs. Elizabeth Moore " Jan. 6, 1866 

Miss Mollie McKeehan " Mar. 25, " 

Harvey W. Henderson " June 3, " 

E. A. Henderson his wife " " " 

Allen F. McCaslin (See Mar.10,'47) Sept. 23 " 

David Smith Dismissed Mar. 14, 1868 

His wife " " " 

Mary E. Akers " Oct. 4, 1868 

Martha J. McCash " June 4, 1869 

Leonard J. Harmon April 16,1871 



OF FRANKLIN, INDIANA. 



269 



Nancy Mean (wife of E. M. Mean) Dismissed Feb. 25, 1872 

Mrs. Harriett Emily Dyer " Sept. 1, 1873 

Mary S. McCaslin ' Stricken off Mar. 19, 1855 

Mary Scott Dismissed April 19, 1855 

Mary E. Jenkins (Bright? 1843) " Sept. 2, 1856 

Rebecca Grilcrees " Oct. 10, " 

Lydia Ann Grilcrees " " " 

James C. Wilson " Nov. 22, " 

Sarah Alexander " Jan. 28, 1857 

May Jane Lewis (Alexander?) " Mar. 14, " 



H 13 2 82 



